The Olympic ordeal stripped Jordan Chiles of everything.
She triumphs with an Olympic bronze medal adorned around her neck, as the US team files a complaint - but then it takes a drastic turn: Jordan Chiles' third place is withdrawn. A harsh setback for the gymnast. The battle is far from over for her.
The medal was already around her neck when she celebrated alongside her US teammate Simone Biles and individual floor Olympic champion Rebecca Andrade from Brazil on the bustling podium at the Bercy Arena in Paris. But then came the shattering blow for gymnast Jordan Chiles: her bronze medal was revoked, one of the major upheavals at the Olympics. Which she has now opened up about for the first time.
At the "Forbes Power Women's Summit", she confessed, "The most significant thing taken from me was the recognition of who I am. Not just my sport, but also the person I am." Instead of being adorned with bronze, she was left with only fifth place. At least she secured the team gold.
In the individual floor exercise, Chiles was the last competitor to perform and scored 13.666 points - fifth place behind the tied Romanian gymnasts Ana Barbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, who both scored 13.700 points. Due to the so-called tiebreak rule in gymnastics, where execution counts more than the difficulty of the exercise, Barbosu was awarded bronze. She was already celebrating with the Romanian national flag around her neck in the hall.
Protest filed four seconds too late
But then the US team filed a protest against Chiles' score. After scrutinizing the video footage, the jury decided to recognize an element and adjust the difficulty value upward. Chiles moved up to third place - and was able to participate in the medal ceremony. Barbosu was in tears, which the Romanian federation did not accept and protested to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The reason: the US team requested the correction one minute and four seconds later instead of within one minute after the announcement of the score. The CAS agreed and declared the upward correction null and void.
So Chiles' original 13.666 points were restored - she had to surrender the bronze medal. Barbosu was honored in a ceremony in Bucharest in mid-August and was presented with the medal. The Romanian spoke about how the controversy left her "sad" and sent "good thoughts" to the US gymnasts.
It's a bitter pill to swallow for Chiles. "I followed the rules. My coach stuck to the rules. We did everything that was absolutely right," she said now. That a heavy weight was placed on her made it so hard to cope with the decision. Her fight will continue, she vowed. "It's not over yet. Because at this point, it's not really about the medal anymore. It's about my peace and my justice."
"Emotionally and verbally abused"
A possible reason for this could be that she is reminded of a low point in 2018, as she revealed. At that time, her coach "emotionally and verbally abused" her. Chiles spoke about it in 2021 on "Peace of Mind with Taraji": "She called me fat. She said I looked like a donut." At the conference now, she did not delve deeper into it, but explained that she "didn't have the ability to use my voice or be heard" at the time. The drama in Paris has now rekindled similar emotions. In 2018, she lost her passion for the sport - now it's similar.
The support of her friends and family couldn't help her at first. "If I look out here and see everyone, I can feel it now. But at first, it was really hard to process everything because my heart was so broken."
Despite the upheaval that resulted in the revocation of her Olympic bronze medal, Jordan Chiles is set to compete in the Olympic Games 2024 in Paris, determined to seek her peace and justice. The harsh experience has reminded her of previous challenges, such as the emotional and verbal abuse she endured from her coach in 2018.
Regardless of the controversy surrounding her bronze medal, Jordan Chiles secured a team gold medal in the Olympics, cementing her place in the competitive world of gymnastics, preparing herself for future challenges in Paris 2024.
