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US Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles opened up about her thoughts on whether racism was a factor in the decision that led to her bronze medal from the 2024 Paris Olympics being voided.
During an interview on the “Baby, this is Keke Palmer” podcast, Chiles was asked if she “accepted” that she had “experienced racism” after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) overturned a score change that placed Chiles third on the women’s floor exercise medal podium, knocking her down to fifth.
“At first I didn’t think about it that way until I almost literally started getting racist comments and saying this and saying that and basically telling like people were telling me to kill myself and it got to a really, really hard point,” Chiles said in response.
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Chiles was awarded third place on the first-ever Olympic women’s gymnastics podium that included three black medalists, along with American teammate Simone Biles and Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade. Chiles now says the “all-Black” podium was something that “people don’t like.”
Simone Biles (silver), Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade (gold) and USA’s Jordan Chiles (bronze) show sportsmanship during the podium ceremony for the artistic gymnastics women’s floor exercise event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Bercy Arena in Paris on August 5, 2024. (GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP via Getty Images)
“I had to leave social media for a while. Because it was, you know, it was really hard to even see that I as an athlete, like, let alone an athlete, is up there, yeah, it’s an ‘all black’ podium, which is very rare, obviously that’s something that people don’t like.
“Being a woman of color, I started to see that more. They didn’t want to see that, they didn’t want to see three beautiful black women standing on that podium. They didn’t want to see us just dominating. And I really took that to heart.”
Romania’s Ana Barbosu initially finished with a higher score than Chile’s when the American finished her routine.
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At the end of the floor exercise final at the Summer Games in August, Barbosu was awarded third place and a place on the podium after initially being judged to have finished. Barbosu was visibly excited when she saw the final results.
But then an American coach spoke to the umpires and appealed the score on one of Chiles’ moves. After review, Chiles’ score was raised, putting the American in third place and leaving Barbosu off the podium. When Barbosu looked up and saw the score change on the board, she dropped the Romanian flag she was holding, covered her face with her hands and walked away in tears.
Ana Barbosu of Romania enters the arena before the floor final on day ten of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Bercy Arena on August 5, 2024 in Paris, France. (Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
Chiles accepted the bronze medal, joining Biles and Andrade on the podium.
Then, on the final day of the Olympics, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that Chile’s appeal was filed after the one-minute time limit, and changed her score to drop her back to fifth place. The next day, on 11 August 2024, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided that Chile must return the medal.
Chiles previously claimed she faced “racist attacks” from social media users in a statement sent to X.
In her first sit-down interview after the incident, she found similar comments.
“For me, everything that’s happened is not about the medal, it’s about, you know, the color of my skin,” Chiles said in a September 2024 interview during a panel at the Forbes Power Women’s Summit.
The controversy brought international scrutiny to the judges who scored the event. CAS and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) have released a joint statement condemning the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the judging panel for the result.
“If the FIG had put such a mechanism or arrangement in place, a great deal of heartache would have been avoided,” the CAS ad-hoc panel said in a statement. “The panel expresses the hope that the FIG will draw the consequences of this case in relation to these three extraordinary athletes and also to other athletes and their support staff in the future, so that this never happens again.”
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Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles of Team United States pose with their Paris 2024 Olympic medals after the women’s artistic gymnastics floor exercise final on day ten of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Bercy Arena on August 5, 2024 in Paris, France. Chile’s medal was later stripped (Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
Chiles and Team USA are currently involved in an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for its decision.
Chile’s lawyers have argued that her coach did indeed make the request in time and that there is video evidence to prove it, and have also indicated that the official who made the decision to strip Chile of the medal had ties to Romania.
Chiles has also filed an appeal with the Swiss Federal Supreme Court to overturn the CAS decision. She argued that she was not given a fair opportunity to defend herself and that CAS did not properly consider video evidence.
Receiving her bronze medal shortly after the Olympics ended, Barbosu expressed sympathy for her American opponent, as well as a Romanian teammate, Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, whose finish was also affected by the back-and-forth scoring change.
“I can’t stop thinking about Sabrina and Jordan right now,” Barbosu said in a statement. “It is a difficult situation for us, with so many uncertainties and overwhelming emotions. I hope everyone understands that we have done nothing wrong at the Olympics. And that the Olympic spirit is more important than any misunderstanding between the authorities.
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Barbosu currently competes in women’s gymnastics at Stanford, while Chiles competes at UCLA. The two programs will meet on March 7.
