Team USA Gymnast Jordan Chiles Holds Back Tears When Asked About Getting Olympic Bronze Medal Taken Away

Team USA Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles was on stage at the Forbes Power Women's Summit in New York City on Wednesday, and she was asked about the recent Paris Games controversy, in which she got her bronze medal taken away.

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"The biggest thing that was taken from me was the recognition of who I was, not just my sport, but the person I am."

Olympic Gymnast @ChilesJordan spoke with @MoiraForbes about being stripped of her bronze medal at the 2024 #PowerWomensSummit. https://t.co/trq44G0BKt pic.twitter.com/QKbkpM8Ek8

— Forbes (@Forbes) September 11, 2024

An emotional Chiles had to pause for a while when the host talked about the bronze medal controversy, asking her, "you said things were taken from you, what was taken from you?"

The 23-year-old was visibly shaken up as she was doing her best to hold back tears before finishing answering the question.

"The biggest thing that was taken from me was the recognition of who I was. Not just my sport, but the person that I am," Chiles said. "To me, everything that has gone on is not about the medal. It's about my skin color, it's about the fact that there were things that have led up to this position of being an athlete."

For those wondering why the medal was taken from her, it all stemmed from the Court of Arbitration for Sport discovering a technicality of a rule discrepancy revolving around Team USA coaches challenging the judges' score four seconds too late. As according to the rulebook, any score appeals must be done within one minute.

This was heartbreaking for Chiles as in view of the competition, at the time the judges adhered to the challenge made by Team USA, noting the difficulty of her routine, so they bumped her score (13.766) high enough to solidify a third place finish.

Nevertheless, considering the new ruling made days later after the competition, Chiles' old score is now being used (13.666) and this correspondingly means she had to give her bronze medal to Romanian Ana Barbosu, who had a score of 13.700.

Barbosu did note the difficulty of all of this, as she hopes one day there will be two bronze medals given out, for both her and Chiles.

When looking at how the Olympic women's gymnastics floor competition finished, Brazil's Rebeca Andrade (14.166) won the gold medal, while fellow team member Simone Biles (14.133) got the silver.

All in all, at least Chiles didn't go home with nothing, as she also helped contribute to USA's gold medal in the all-around team competition.

Related: Olympic Committee Officially Rules That Team USA Gymnast Jordan Chiles Has To Give Back Her Bronze Medal