Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles broke down in tears at the 2024 Forbes Power Women’s Summit in New York City while addressing the emotional toll of losing an Olympic medal. The 22-year-old athlete, known for her powerful performances at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, candidly attributed her loss to something far deeper than just competition.
Jordan Chiles spoke out in her first interview since the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stripped her of her bronze medal last month.
On Wednesday, the gymnast spoke out emotionally about how the controversy surrounding her bronze medal in the women’s artistic floor exercise at the 2024 Paris Games affected her, claiming that the process took away “the person I am.”
Chiles was initially ranked fifth following her floor routine at the 2024 Paris Olympics last month. Her coach appealed her score, citing the difficult nature of her routine. After the point adjustment, Chiles was awarded the bronze medal, only for the IOC to reclaim the points after Team Romania filed an inquiry with the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS), claiming that Team USA’s appeal was submitted four seconds after the 1-minute deadline. CAS eventually changed the scores, meaning the US star’s bronze went to Romania’s Ana Bǎrbosu.
In the aftermath of Chiles’ appeal and the subsequent contentious ruling, Chiles revealed she faced “consistent, utterly baseless, and extremely hurtful attacks on social media.
Chiles told Forbes that the whole ordeal affected her deeply.
‘The biggest thing that was taken from me was … the recognition of who I was. Not just my sport, but the person I am,” Chiles’s voice broke as tears filled her eyes, after taking several seconds to collect herself. “To me, everything that has gone on is not about the medal. It is about my skin color. It is about the fact that 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, when I did lose the love of the sport, I lost it again. I feel like I was really left in the dark.”
“We did everything that was totally, completely right.” Jordan Chiles added that her career isn’t over, and right now, “it’s about my peace and my justice.”
