Jordan Chiles: US gymnast says Olympic medal controversy took away 'the person I am'

CNN
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An emotional Jordan Chiles spoke on Wednesday about how the controversy surrounding her bronze medal in women's artistic gymnastics on the floor at the 2024 Paris Olympics has affected her, saying the process has “taken away the person I am.”

Chile's U.S. gymnast was stripped of her first individual Olympic medal after the Romanian gymnastics team appealed the decision to overturn her floor exercise final score before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The CAS ultimately upheld the appeal, and the U.S. star's bronze medal went to Romania's Ana Bǎrbosu.

On Wednesday, Chiles said the whole ordeal had left her deeply shaken.

“The most important thing that was taken from me was the knowledge of who I was.
“Not just my sport, but the person I am,” she said at the Forbes Power Women's Summit, appearing emotional at times. She received applause from the audience as she collected her thoughts.

“For me, everything that happened is not about the medal. It's about the color of my skin. It's about the fact that there were things that led to this position as an athlete. And I felt like everything was taken away from me. I felt like when I lost the love of the sport in 2018, I lost it again. … I feel like I was really left in the dark.”

CNN has contacted the International Olympic Committee, the International Gymnastics Federation and the CAS for comment on Chiles' comments.

Chiles said she had a coach in 2018 who was emotionally and verbally abusive. She explained that she was “not able to use her voice or make herself heard,” adding that the situation at the Olympics had brought up similar feelings in her.

Chiles has spoken about her abusive coach before, but never mentioned her name. Chiles spoke of the “great burden on [her] “Mental health” were the coach’s comments when she considered quitting gymnastics.

“She would call me fat. She would say I looked like a donut. The littlest things, people would ask me, 'Oh, you're eating that today.' And it was like, 'Well, I'm not eating because you just triggered my brain.' And it was really, really hard for me,” Chiles told Taraji P. Henson and Tracie Jade on “Peace of Mind with Taraji” in 2021.

“Because I just thought, 'This is ridiculous. What have I done to myself?' But at the same time, I was having fun. It was like one half of my brain was telling me one thing and the other half was telling me another.”

Chiles was awarded bronze in the women's floor exercise at the 2024 Games in August after her coaches challenged her original score that had placed her fifth. The victory was historic – it was the first time all three spots on the Olympic podium had been occupied by black women. In a remarkable display of sportsmanship, Chiles suggested that she and silver medalist Simone Biles playfully bow to Brazil's Rebeca Andrade, who won gold. The move was captured in an iconic photo that instantly made sports history.

The Romanian Gymnastics Federation has filed an official complaint with CAS to examine the circumstances under which Chile's score was corrected. The federation believes that the US team's complaint came four seconds after the one-minute time limit allowed for coaches had expired.

The CAS decided to keep the competition going and later announced that the bronze medal would be awarded to Bǎrbosu from Romania.

Both the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) and USA Gymnastics (USAG) have announced that they will appeal the decision, claiming that the CAS initially sent “crucial communications” to the wrong email addresses, preventing the parties from adequately preparing for the hearing.

“Nobody heard that we had prepared things … They wanted everything to be about the Olympics and this and that,” Chiles said Wednesday. “It's an image. But I'm making history and I'll keep making history. This is something I've rightly done.”

“I followed the rules. My coach followed the rules. We did everything absolutely right. I feel like they took all that away because they were left in the dark and tried to put the name 'gymnastics' in front of it.”

The USAG has also raised concerns about Dr. Hamid G. Gharavi, who has represented Romania in previous arbitrations and is now chairing the CAS panel. The CAS says none of the parties involved objected to Gharavi's appointment to the panel, but the USAG claims it was never informed of his ties to Romania.