Jordan Chiles will probably never forget the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games. While this summer took Chiles’ career to new heights, the gymnast experienced a “significant blow” when Team Romania contested her bronze medal win, arguing that it should be awarded to her competitor, Ana Barbosu.
Forced to return the medal, the Team USA gymnast is still working on moving forward from the heartbreaking title reallocation. In a recent interview with CNN, Chiles explained how the situation taught her the importance of “standing your ground.”
“Things can be really, really hard in your life and things may be stripped from you and you’re going to have to deal with that, and understand that you need to fight for what you’re fighting for,” she told the publication. “And that’s something that I’ve learned as well in the past three or four months just coming off of Paris.”
As previously reported by theGrio, Chiles and her attorneys filed an appeal to the bronze medal reallocation in September. During the 2024 Olympics, the gymnast won the bronze medal after her coach Cecile Landi, submitted an on-floor appeal. However, shortly after that, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) voided her coach’s initial appeal claiming it came in four seconds beyond the one-minute time limit to submit scoring inquiries.
The “CAS violated Chiles’s fundamental ‘right to be heard’ by refusing to consider the video evidence that showed her inquiry was submitted on time — in direct contradiction to the findings in CAS’s decision,” her lawyers claimed in the press release, per People magazine.
“We aren’t letting this go so easily and will keep looking for video and stuff,” her coach added at the time of the ruling.
Describing the decision as “unjust,” Chiles explained how the CAS ruling not only impacted her but “everyone who has championed [her] journey.” The situation also made the Team USA star a victim of “unprompted racially driven attacks on social media,” which, though hurtful, were not the worst part.
“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. To me, everything that has gone on is not about the medal, it’s about my skin color,” she said during an appearance at this year’s Forbes Power Women’s Summit. “I made history and I’ll always continue to make history and something that I rightfully did. I followed the rules, my coach followed the rules.”
With the support of her community and friends like Simone Biles, Chiles says she’s learned to embrace every part of her journey.