At the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, the United States women’s gymnastics team made headlines for the bronze medal controversy involving United States gymnast Jordan Chiles. The Oregon native was stripped of her bronze medal during the Paris Olympics when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decided to take back the medal to award Ana Bărbosu of Romania. The gold medalist is now detailing her heartbreaking experience in her memoir titled I’m That Girl: Living the Power of my Dreams via Harper Influence, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
In an exclusive expert from I’m That Girl is out on March 4, 2025, Chiles recalls the devastating ruling.
“CAS ruled that [Coach] Cecile was four seconds over the one minute allotted mark, according to the Omega clock, when she went to put in the inquiry. And therefore, they are overturning the inquiry. That drops Jordan back down to fifth place. Ana will take the medal, and Sabrina will take fourth place,” Chiles writes referencing the Romanian gymnasts that were now placed ahead of her.
“Suddenly, the car went quiet. I’m surprised everyone couldn’t hear the sound of my heart breaking, because it absolutely did, there in that back seat. My brain stopped even functioning within my body. Somewhere faraway, I could see my mom shaking her head, and hear her saying ‘Why? Why!’” she continued.
Cecile Landi’s inquiry of the rescore which awarded Chiles for her level of difficulty, that was not first honored. The CAS argued that she did not get the inquiry in on time. Despite the controversy that followed, Chiles was at the time awarded the bronze medal making the first all-Black podium in gymnastics history which included teammate Simone Biles securing silver and Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade on top with gold.
The book is not the first time that Chiles has spoken out about the bronze medal controversy. The gymnast first took to social media and then made her first television appearance after the drama. Chiles spoke to the TODAY show back in November about how it was difficult to go back and forth with the officials.
“Honestly, it’s been really, really hard just to comprehend everything that’s been happening,” Chiles expressed. “Finally, now I feel comfortable, in a way, to talk about what has been happening. I feel like I recently have been trying to tell myself I’ve been OK, the past four, five months, and it’s honestly been a very, very difficult time.”
“It’s hard to tell yourself that everything’s going to be fine when you know literally we didn’t do anything wrong,” she explained. “Everything was very right. Everything was in the time that it needed to be, and for them to come back and say it was four seconds late when we’ve had proof. We’ve had everything that really can show that everything was right.”
Chiles hammered in on how she knows that she is speaking her truth and will continue to fight for justice.
“I’ve been like, ‘OK, I can’t control what’s happening on the outside. I can only control what my truth is,’” Chiles shared tearing up. “I know what the truth is, and I know that we were right in everything that we were doing.”
Will Jordan Chiles return to the Olympics in 2028?
According to PEOPLE, the controversy is still being dealt with through litigation but Chiles was able to answer if she would return to the Olympics in 2028.
“It’s not a yes, but it’s not a no. I’m allowed to want a lot of things for myself,” she says. “Of course an individual medal is something I continue to strive for. But I know myself, and I know the work and effort I put in [in Paris], and that was a history-making podium. I’m just very proud that I was a part of that. At the end of the day, I always just tell people, ‘I’m just like you guys. I’m trying to strive for greatness — just like everybody else.’”
I’m That Girl is now available for preorder and will be available on March 4, 2025, wherever books are sold.
The post Jordan Chiles recalls devastating moment bronze medal was stripped appeared first on ClutchPoints.
