Gymnast Jordan Chiles Breaks Down After Losing Olympic Bronze Medal

Chiles Emotional Over Medal Loss

A tear­ful Jor­dan Chiles spoke can­did­ly about the Court of Arbi­tra­tion for Sport’s deci­sion to strip her of the Olympic bronze medal she had ini­tial­ly won in the floor exer­cise final at the 2024 Paris Games. Chiles said the loss was about more than just the medal itself.

Feeling Unsupported and Unrecognized

Chiles expressed that the “biggest thing that was tak­en” from her was the recog­ni­tion of who she was as a per­son, not just as an ath­lete. She felt there was a lack of sup­port for her and that her “skin col­or” and the chal­lenges she had faced as a Black ath­lete played a role.

Past Struggles with Abuse and Losing Motivation

Chiles ref­er­enced past issues she had with a coach who “emo­tion­al­ly and ver­bal­ly abused” her, say­ing she did­n’t have the abil­i­ty to use her voice at the time. This led her to lose the love of the sport in 2018, which she felt she expe­ri­enced again with the medal controversy.

USA Gymnastics’ Efforts to Reinstate Medal

USA Gym­nas­tics has stat­ed it will con­tin­ue fight­ing to allow Chiles to keep the bronze medal, dis­put­ing Roma­ni­a’s claim that the coach’s appeal was filed mere sec­onds late. The gov­ern­ing body sub­mit­ted video evi­dence it believes shows the appeal was filed in time.

Ongoing Racial Issues and Social Media Attacks

Chiles, who is African Amer­i­can, said she has faced racial­ly-charged social media attacks that she called “wrong and extreme­ly hurt­ful” fol­low­ing the medal deci­sion. She believes the con­tro­ver­sy is about more than just the sport.