Jordan Chiles considers stripping Olympic medal

Chiles initially won the bronze medal for her floor exercise at the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer. After the medal ceremony, the International Olympic Committee decided to strip her of her medal after Romania objected and relegated her team's gymnast, Ana Barbosu, to third place. Chiles faced massive abuse on social media following the incident.

In a statement in August, she addressed the situation, expressing her disappointment at the sports organization's “unjustified” decision to strip her of her medal and give it to the Romanian team.

“I am at a loss for words,” she wrote at the time. “This decision feels unfair and is a huge blow, not only to me but to everyone who has supported my journey,” she wrote. “To add to the suffering, the unsolicited racially motivated attacks on social media are wrong and extremely hurtful.”

“I have put my heart and soul into this sport and am so proud to represent my culture and my country,” she added.

At the Games, Chiles' coaches approached the judges and argued that the difficulty level of her routine was incorrect. The judges agreed and when the score was corrected by 0.1, Chiles' new score of 13.766 was enough to beat Barbosu and Voinea's 13.700 and secure her the bronze medal at the last minute.

However, following Romania’s appeal, CAS found that the US team’s appeal after one minute and four seconds — Coaches have one minute after scoring to appeal a score – and so CAS invalidated the US team's appeal and demoted Chile's score back to 13.666 and fifth place. USAG responded with an appeal that appeared to prove the team's request was made before the allotted 60 seconds had expired, but the decision remained the same.

At the Forbes event, Chiles said: “I followed the rules. My coach followed the rules. We did everything absolutely right.”

She added: “It was definitely really hard to really see all the love and support. When I look out here and see everyone, I can feel it now. But in the beginning, it was really hard to really grasp it because I was so heartbroken. I'm grateful to every single person who has come forward and said what they needed to say. Whether it's through social media, through news outlets, or just through people texting me, I'm so grateful.”

Chiles also confirmed that this is not the end of her career. “It's not over,” Chiles said. “Because at this pace, I'm not really concerned about the medal. I'm concerned about my peace and my justice.”

Last night at the MTV Video Music Awards, Flavor presented Flav Chiles with a bronze watch medal as a consolation prize. “I know they tried to take your medal away from you,” the rapper said. “But I got you something they can't take away from you.”