A visibly emotional Jordan Chiles said, Forbes Chiles made her feelings clear Wednesday after being stripped of her first Olympic medal after appealing a decision by the Romanian gymnastics team to revise their final score. Forbes' She claimed at the Power Women's Summit that the episode “isn't about the medal,” it “is about skin color.”
“The biggest thing that was taken away from me was the recognition of who I am,” Chiles told the audience. “Not just my sport, but who I am.”
Chiles paused for a moment to collect his thoughts before continuing: “To me, everything that happened wasn't about the medal. It was about the color of my skin. It was about the things that put me in a position to be an athlete. And I felt like everything was taken away from me.”
Chiles said she felt “unable to use my voice or be heard” after an experience with a verbally and emotionally abusive coach in 2018, and recalled that it “had a huge impact on my mental health.”
“When I lost my love for the sport in 2018, I felt like I lost it again,” Chiles said Wednesday. “I really feel like I was left in the dark.”
Chiles was initially awarded the bronze medal in August after her coaches appealed her initial score, making her fifth. However, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation filed a formal appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which accepted the appeal and awarded the bronze medal to Ana Bǎrbosu of Romania.
“Nobody was listening to the fact that there were certain things that we implemented,” Chiles said of the arbitration process. “They wanted everything to be about the Olympics and this or that. That’s a picture. But I’m making history and I’ll always continue to make history. I did it right,” he said. “I followed the rules. My coach followed the rules. We did everything that was completely, completely right. So I feel like being left in the dark is something that they’re trying to take away from and put the name ‘gymnastics’ in front of.”