Jordan Chiles admits Olympics controversy cost her more than just a medal

It had over a month since USA gymnast Jordan Chiles had given an interview.

The 23-year-old Olympian was stripped of her bronze medal in the floor exercise last month after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the score inquiry her coaches filed at the 2024 Paris Olympics was illegal because it allegedly happened four seconds after the one-minute window to file inquiries allowed by the International Gymnastics Federation.

Chiles had been radio silent since the incident, releasing a statement to express her disappointment before going on a self-imposed social media hiatus and laying low at home while her medal was subsequently awarded to Romania’s Ana Barbosu.

In her first public interview since the Olympic controversy at the Forbes 2024 Power Women's Summit, Chiles admitted that the incident was so traumatic that it ended up affecting her on a deeper level than simply having to give back her medal.

“The biggest thing that was taken from me was the recognition of who I was, not just my sport, but the person I am,” Chiles said as she choked back tears. “To me everything that has gone on is not about the medal, it’s about my skin color … I felt like everything has been stripped, I felt like back in 2018 where I did lost the love of the sport; I lost it again.”

Chiles admitted in the days after the International Olympic Committee officially stripped her of her medal that she was the target of racially charged harassment on social media.

In the weeks that followed as Chiles laid low, USA Gymnastics appealed the CAS ruling based on video evidence that Chiles’ score inquiry was actually requested twice in that minute-long window.

The CAS acknowledged the video evidence existed but it released a statement saying its bylaws prohibited it from overruling itself and changing its decision. The International Gymnastics Federation also acknowledged that it had let Chiles down because the technology wasn't in place to ensure score inquiries were done properly, though nothing was done to correct the matter.

“I feel like I was really left in the dark,” Chiles added.

USAG and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee are currently appealing Chiles’ case to the Swiss Federal Tribunal, a governing body that has the authority to overrule a CAS decision.