Controversy over Olympic bronze medal has taken away ‘the person I am’

American gymnast Jordan Chiles spoke out this week about losing her bronze medal at the Olympics. She said the controversy and the racist backlash that followed brought back traumatic memories that she has struggled to overcome.

“For me, everything that happened is not about the medal,” she said Wednesday at the Forbes Power Women Summit. “It’s about, you know, the color of my skin. It’s about the fact that there were things that led to this position as an athlete, and I felt like everything was taken away. I felt like when I came back in 2018, when I lost the love for the sport, I lost it again.”

The 23-year-old gymnast said the “biggest thing” she lost was “the recognition of who she was.”

“Not just my sport, but the person I am,” she said.

In August, Chiles was stripped of her Olympic floor exercise bronze medal after a sports arbitration body ruled that an appeal against her score in the category had been improperly honored. Although her score initially placed her fifth, behind two Romanian gymnasts, her coaches launched an investigation and the judges awarded her an extra 0.1 point, dropping her to third place. The Romanian Gymnastics Federation appealed the score adjustment after the medal ceremony, and the arbitration court ruled that Chiles’ challenge had been four seconds too late, although Team USA disputed that it was outside the time limit.

The court ruling sparked outrage in the U.S., but the controversy surrounding the score change also led to a frenzy of racist attacks against Chiles online. USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee condemned the “completely unfounded and extremely hurtful social media attacks” against her.

Chiles, who was part of the team that won gold in the women’s gymnastics final in Paris, has spoken out publicly about how racism and the intense pressure of the sport have affected her. She said on Wednesday that she trained under a coach who insulted her in 2018, and that the medal controversy brought out similar emotions.

Chiles said that when her medal was first taken away, she struggled to feel the support of the public. “But,” she added, “I appreciate it so much, and I don’t think I would be where I am today … if everyone hadn’t been on my side and really recognized what is right.”