At the Forbes Power Women’s Summit on Wednesday, Jordan Chiles spoke out about the devastation she faced after being stripped of her bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics in August. Olympic officials instead gave the bronze medal to Romania’s Ana Bărbosu.
“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, who’s 23, said at the event, according to a report from People. “To me, everything that has gone on is not about the medal, it’s about my skin color.”
As Blavity reported, Chiles’ coach Cecile Landi initially made a successful appeal when she argued that the judges made a mistake in their scoring. Chiles moved up to third place after Landi’s appeal. However, officials later decided that the appeal came too late. As a result, Chiles was stripped of her third-place finish.
“I made history and I’ll always continue to make history and something that I rightfully did,” Chiles said at the Forbes Power Women’s Summit. “I followed the rules, my coach followed the rules.”
She added, “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.”
Chiles said the setback reminded her of a disappointment she faced in 2018. She said was dealing with a “coach who emotionally and verbally abused” her at the time.
“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 said about the experience.
Still, Chiles is grateful for all her supporters — like Olympic teammate Simone Biles — who have reached out in various ways since being stripped of her medal.
“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.
She concluded, “I do appreciate every single person that has been able to come out and say what they needed to say. 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.”
