Jordan Chiles says Olympic gymnastics controversy took away ‘the popularity of who I used to be’

For 14 seconds, Jordan Chiles paused and appeared down to gather her ideas and feelings.

The query — about what Chiles felt she misplaced when the Worldwide Olympic Committee stripped her of her bronze medal within the Olympic ladies’s gymnastics ground train — compelled her to cease mid-answer. The viewers on the Forbes Energy Girls’s Summit in New York applauded her as she regrouped and held the microphone again as much as her mouth.

Holding again tears, Chiles stated she misplaced greater than a bronze medal by means of the controversy that dominated the top of final month’s Paris Video games. The controversy “wasn’t concerning the medal,” she stated, however different realities that made her really feel “stripped.”

“The largest factor that was taken from me was the popularity of who I used to be, not simply my sport, however the individual I’m,” Chiles stated.

“It’s about my pores and skin coloration,” Chiles added. “It’s concerning the truth there have been issues which have led as much as this place of being an athlete.”

The on-stage interview Wednesday — which occurred earlier than Chiles appeared at MTV’s Video Music Awards at evening — marked the gymnast’s most in depth feedback for the reason that IOC stated it will reallocate Chiles’ bronze to Romania’s Ana Bărbosu following an enchantment by the Romanian Gymnastics Federation.

On the ground closing on Aug. 5, Chiles initially completed fifth however rose to 3rd after her coach, Cecile Landi, submitted a profitable inquiry to boost her rating by one-tenth of a degree. 5 days later, the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport dominated that Landi’s inquiry ought to be invalidated as a result of it got here 4 seconds after the one-minute window for such an enchantment. After the ruling, the Worldwide Gymnastics Federation dropped Chiles to fifth, and the IOC reallocated the medal. USA Gymnastics has stated it’s interesting the CAS choice to the Swiss Federal Tribunal.

Chiles stated she felt “left in the dead of night” and unsupported throughout the controversy. She felt her voice wasn’t heard throughout the enchantment course of and in contrast her feelings to 2018, when she stated an emotionally and verbally abusive coach triggered her to lose her love for gymnastics.

“Nobody was listening to the truth that there are issues that we have now in place,” Chiles stated. “There are issues that we have now that ought to’ve been seen however weren’t taken for realization.”

“The largest factor that was taken from me was the popularity of who I used to be, not simply my sport, however the individual I’m.”

Olympic Gymnast @ChilesJordan spoke with @MoiraForbes about being stripped of her bronze medal on the 2024 #PowerWomensSummit. https://t.co/gRF3MBW6J9 pic.twitter.com/Fjett19aDY

— ForbesWomen (@ForbesWomen) September 11, 2024

USA Gymnastics has argued that it has video proof exhibiting Landi made the enchantment 47 seconds after Chiles’ rating was posted, 13 seconds earlier than the inquiry window closed, and that it didn’t have sufficient time to correctly make its case to CAS.

Chiles beforehand referred to the choice as “unjust.”

“(It) comes as a major blow, not simply to me, however to everybody who has championed my journey,” Chiles stated in a put up on X on Aug. 15. “So as to add to the heartbreak, the unprompted racially pushed assaults on social media are incorrect and intensely hurtful.”

Virtually a month later, Chiles maintains that she and her coach adopted the principles and did “every little thing that was completely and fully proper” within the ground train competitors.

“I made historical past and I’ll at all times proceed to make historical past,” stated Chiles, who gained gold within the Olympic ladies’s group competitors.

Chiles, who will return to UCLA for the upcoming school gymnastics season, acquired a bronze clock on the VMAs as a present from Taste Flav, who promised to make her one after her medal was stripped.

Chiles receives a bronze clock from Taste Flav on Wednesday. (Noam Galai / Getty Pictures for MTV)