Jordan Chiles lost her ‘love of the sport’ after Olympic bronze medal controversy

‘The biggest thing that was taken from me was that it was the recognition of who I was,’ Chiles says

Jordan Chiles lost her ‘love of the sport’ after losing Olympic bronze medal (Getty Images)

Jordan Chiles has given her first interview since losing her bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

During the games, the Team USA gymnast had her floor routine score changed from fifth place to third place following an inquiry into the scoring system — and then demoted back to fifth once more after an appeal from an opponent. Chiles has now reflected on the experience during the Forbes Power Women’s Summit on Wednesday, September 11.

“The biggest thing that was taken from me was that it was the recognition of who I was. Not just my sport, but the person I am,” Chiles said about the medal controversy, per People. “To me, everything that has gone on is not about the medal, it’s about my skin color.”

After Chiles first received her bronze medal, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) — an independent body that resolves international sports disputes — claiming that the American coach filed the inquiry past the one-minute deadline. CAS ruled last month that the inquiry was indeed filed outside of the one-minute window and the original scores would be reinstated. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) upheld this decision and ordered Chiles to return her bronze medal and to be given to Romanian gymnast Ana Bărbosu.

“I felt like when I was back in 2018 where I did lose the love of the sport, I lost it again,” Chiles said, looking back on the days after the IOC made the final decision. “I felt like I was really left in the dark.”

The gymnast explained that, in 2018, she was “dealing with a coach who emotionally and verbally abused me,” which stopped her from wanting to speak up for herself. “I didn’t have the ability to use my voice or be heard, and that is one thing that I feel like now in this instance of being in this situation, that I wasn’t able to be heard,” she recalled.

“I made history and I’ll always continue to make history and something that I rightfully did. I followed the rules, my coach followed the rules,” Chiles said at the summit, despite the CAS claim that her coach filed the score appeal four seconds after the allotted time window. “So having being left in the dark is something that I feel like they just took that all away and was trying to just put the name gymnastics in front of it.”

While Chiles acknowledged “all the love and support” she received from fans amid the controversy, she admitted that she was too sad to process all of the positive messages. “I can feel it now, but at first it was really hard to really take that in because of how badly my heart was broken,” Chiles said. “Everything did go so quickly. But I do appreciate every single person that has been able to come out and say what they needed to say, whether it was through social media, whether it was through news outlets, whether it was through just people texting me.”

She concluded: “I do appreciate it so much and I don’t think I could be where I am right now sitting up here talking to everybody. If it wasn’t for everyone being right by my side and really recognizing what the right thing is.”