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Team USA gymnastics star Jordan Chiles has not given up on her effort to reclaim the Olympic medal that was stripped from her following a controversial ruling.
“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 during an appearance on NBC’s TODAY show, her first live TV interview discussing the situation. “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.”
Chiles was awarded the bronze medal in the floor exercise at the Paris Olympics after her coach Cecile Landi pointed out a mistake the judges made when determining the degree of difficulty for part of her routine, correcting her score.
However, on the last day of the Paris Games, the International Olympic Committee announced that it would adhere to a Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling that Landi missed the one-minute deadline to protest the score by four seconds, dropping Chiles back to fifth place. The bronze medal was awarded to 18-year-old Romanian Ana Bărbosu.
Chiles said she still physically has the medal, but she is fighting to have the official results changed back. She has pursued legal avenues with her lawyers to have the medal returned, and she said there is video evidence that Landi made the scoring inquiry within the 60-second window. The 23-year-old explained why the medal is so important to her.
“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.”
Chiles added that she has not yet considered whether she will compete in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
“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,” she said.