After having her Olympic bronze medal taken in a controversial decision last month, Jordan Chiles is holding her head high and speaking her truth about what happened.
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Chiles attended Forbes’ Power Women’s Summit in New York Wednesday and addressed questions about the situation involving her medal in the individual artistic floor competition at the Paris Olympics last month.
According to CNN reports, the stunning gymnast spoke candidly Wednesday about how the controversy over the medal took away “the person I am.”
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Chiles’ first individual Olympic medal was awarded to Ana BÇrbosu after the Romanian gymnastics team challenged the decision to revise her final score in the floor exercise to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) and CAS upheld the challenge.
“The biggest thing that was taken from me was the recognition of who I was.
Not just my sport, but the person I am,” she told Forbes’ Power Women’s Summit, while tearing up.
“To me, everything that has gone on, it’s not about the medal. It’s about my skin color. It’s about the fact there were things that have led up to this position of being an athlete. And I felt like everything has been stripped. I felt like when I was back in 2018 where I did lose the love of the sport, I lost it again. … I feel like I was really left in the dark.”
Chiles also revealed the situation triggered memories of another previous situation, in 2018 when she worked with a coach (who she did not name) who was emotionally and verbally abusive to her. Chiles said she lacked “the ability to use my voice or be heard,” noting how the situation at the Olympics brought back similar emotions.
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The bronze went to Chiles at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris following a challenge from her coaches over her initial score in the women’s floor exercise placed her fifth. The new score that resulted from that challenge moved her into third place, marking the first time in history three Black women held all the positions on the Olympic podium in gymnastics.
The Romanian Gymnastics Federation filed an official challenge with CAS to review the circumstances surrounding the decision to revise Chiles’ score, specifically claiming the challenge from the US team came four seconds after the one-minute permitted deadline. CAS decided to uphold the challenge and it was announced BÇrbosu would be awarded the bronze.
Both the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) and USA Gymnastics (USAG) have said they will appeal the decision. USOPC and USAG have also made claims that CAS initially sent “crucial communications” to the wrong email addresses which prevented the parties involved from being able to properly prepare for the hearing.
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“No-one was listening to the fact that there are things that we have in place … They wanted it all to be about the Olympics and this and that,” Chiles said Wednesday. “It’s a picture. But I make history and I will always continue to make history. It’s something I rightfully did.”
“I followed the rules. My coach followed the rules. We did everything that was totally, completely right. So having been left in the dark is something that I feel like they took that all away and were trying to put the name ‘gymnastics’ in front of it.”
It’s worth noting that USAG also claims it was never informed that the chair of the CAS panel, Dr. Hamid G. Gharavi had ties to Romania, having previously represented the country in previous arbitration cases.
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Wednesday night brought happy moments for Chiles, who had a special moment onstage at the MTV Video Music Awards with Flavor Flav where he gifted her a diamond encrusted bronze stopwatch, according to Variety reports.
“I just want to turn this into a little Olympic moment for a second if ya’ll don’t mind,” said Flavor Flav said. “Ay yo Jordan, I know they tried to take your medal away from you, but you know what? I got you something that they can’t take away from you.”
Flav took the pocket watch chain from his back pocket and placed it around Chiles’ neck.
After Chiles thanked him for the watch, Flav revealed he had another surprise for her as well.
As y’all know I am an official sponsor for the United States Olympic Water Polo Team, so that’s why I wanted to turn this into an Olympic moment. And guess what else? I got your prize money too. I just wanted to surprise you with that.”
We love that for her, for sure. Also, major props to Flavor Flav for continuing to reveal what an incredible human being he truly is!