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Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles opened up about her bronze medal being stripped in her first TV interview since the incident.
During Monday's (November 11) episode of the TODAY show, Chiles said the aftermath of the 2024 Paris Olympics has been "a very difficult time" as she and her lawyers have been trying to get her medal officially returned.
“It's hard to tell yourself everything is going to be fine when we literally didn’t do anything wrong. Everything was in the time that it needed to be," Chiles said Monday. “For them to come back and say it was four seconds too late when we have proof … I can only control what my truth is and I know that we were right.”
During the gymnastics floor final, Chiles initially posted a score of 13.666, falling short of Romanian Ana Barbosu's score of 13.700. However, Chiles' coaches challenged her difficulty score, which added 0.1 to her total and earned her the bronze medal.
Barbosu's team later lodged a complaint that the U.S. didn't make its inquiry into Chile's score within the one-minute deadline. The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) then ruled in favor of Romania, reinstating Chiles' original score of 13.666 and moving Bărbosu’s back to bronze.
The U.S. attempted to appeal the decision to strip Chiles of her bronze medal with video evidence that its inquiry was requested before the one-minute cut-off time. However, CAS declined to reconsider its ruling.
Chiles is now appealing CAS' decision to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland.
The Team USA gymnast still physically has the bronze medal, but official results show she finished 5th.
When asked about the meaning behind this medal, Chiles, who earned a gold medal in the team final in Paris and a bronze at the Tokyo Olympics, said: “It was like a cherry on top. My redemption tour going into Paris was 'Yes.' Coming back with a gold, coming back with the understanding that I was able to go out there and be the best version of myself,” she said. “With this floor medal it was like 'Wow, I never expected myself to make a floor final.'"
"Plus it was an all Black podium. That was history being made. I was very glad to be a part of," she added.
As far as her Olympic future, Chiles said of the upcoming 2028 Los Angeles Olympics: “LA is in and out of my mind. I think right now, I’m just trying to take in what’s happened from Paris and just take day by day."
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