Jordan Chiles is sharing more about the “very, very hard time” she’s been through since she was stripped of her bronze medal at the Paris Olympics — but reveals she still has the physique medal.
As the 23-year-old Olympian continues her legal battle to retain her bronze medal from the floor gymnastics final, Chiles reached out to Hoda Kotb on Today show on Monday, November 11 to find out how she handles it all.
“Honestly, it was very difficult to understand everything that was happening,” said the gymnast. “Now I can finally feel comfortable in a way to talk about what’s going on.”
She continued, “I feel like recently I’ve been trying to tell myself that I’ve been fine for the past four, five months, and honestly, it’s been a very, very difficult time.”
Jordan Chiles gives first interview after being stripped of Olympic bronze medal: ‘My heart was broken’
Controversy erupted after Chiles’ routine, after her coach successfully challenged the judges’ scoring decision, pushing her to the bronze medal behind Brazilian gold medalist Rebecca Andrada and Chiles’ teammate Simone Biles, who won silver.
It was then later decided that Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosa should receive the bronze after the gymnastics governing body decided that the inquiry about Chiles’ result had arrived too late.
Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post via Getty
Since then, there have been ongoing petitions and appeals between the Romanian and US Olympic Committees, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) — all of which have exhausted the gymnast.
“It’s hard to tell yourself that everything is going to be okay when you feel like you’ve literally done nothing wrong,” Chiles said on Today. “Everything was very good, everything was in the time it should have been, and to come back and say that it was four seconds late when we had proof that we had everything that could really show that everything was fine.”
She added: “I think now it’s just the support that’s been around me. I’m like, ‘Okay, I can’t control anything that happens outside, I can only control what’s my truth and I know what the truth is and I know that we were right in everything we did.’ ”
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Still, not ending the controversy is bittersweet for the athlete, though she told Kotb she still has the actual medal.
“It was like the cherry on top,” Chiles said of winning the individual bronze along with the team gold, adding that Paris was her “redemption tour” after the Tokyo Games, and she could finally “go there and be the best version of myself .”
“And with this medal on the floor, it was like, wow, I never expected to even make it to the final on the floor, I never expected to come back with a medal, none of that.”
Chiles, who has alluded in the past that her race played a role in the incident, also noted that her achievement was historic.
Jordan Chiles on being stripped of bronze medal: ‘You have to fight for what you fight for’
“It was an all-black podium that went down in history, it’s something I’m very proud to be a part of, it’s something I hope people can see,” she said.
Chiles added, “It’s something I’ll always remember.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education