Jordan Chiles is doubling down on her
efforts to reclaim her Olympic medal
that was stripped after a
controversial ruling
saying, “that bronze medal was given to me in the right way.”
The 23-year-old gymnast told NBC’s “TODAY” show Monday how it had “honestly been a very difficult time” since the Olympics wrapped, as she and her lawyers have pursued legal avenues to have her medal officially returned.
While Chiles said she still physically has the medal, the
official results show
that she finished in 5th.
“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 in her first live TV interview on the ordeal. “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 originally finished fifth in the floor exercise event at the Paris Olympics in August. Her coach, Cecile Landi, saw that judges had erred in evaluating the degree of difficulty for an element of her routine and her score
was corrected
, landing her up to third place.
However on the last day of the Games the International Olympic Committee announced it would abide by a
Court of Arbitration for Sport
ruling that Landi made the protest 64 seconds after scores were posted — four seconds have the 1-minute deadline. But Chiles said video evidence from the competition showed that the inquiry call was made within 60 seconds.
Chiles lost the bronze, which was then awarded to Romanian
Ana Bărbosu
, 18.
In September, Chiles, with the support of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee and USA Gymnastics,
filed an appeal
and asked Switzerland’s Supreme Court to overturn the ruling that lost her medal.
Also that month, Chiles, whose father is Black and whose mother is Latina, said she has
endured racist internet criticism
in the wake of the international dispute.
NBC’s Hoda Kotb asked Chiles why this particular medal means so much. After all, she still has a team gold from Paris and a bronze earned three years ago in Tokyo.
“It was like a cherry on top,” 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.
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