By Liz Courquet-Lesaulnier
When news broke on Aug. 10 that Jordan Chiles was being stripped of her Olympic bronze medal, supporters of the 23-year-old gymnast reacted with serious “We ride at dawn” energy. Understandably so.
Just five days earlier, people worldwide had celebrated an unprecedented moment: Olympic gymnastics’ first all-Black champions’ podium. We watched Chiles stand proudly alongside her American teammate, silver medalist Simone Biles, and Brazilian gold medalist Rebeca Andrade. Videos and photos of the powerhouse trio captured the best of Black sisterhood.
The women held hands and hugged. Then, Chiles led a sweet moment where she and Biles bowed down to Andrade in recognition of her athletic excellence.
Now Chiles’ historic achievement has been tainted by both the decision to grant her medal to a Romanian competitor — due to judging errors during the competition — and the relentless, racist harassment Chiles has been subjected to since then.
“While celebrating my Olympic accomplishments, I heard the devastating news that my bronze medal had been stripped away,” Chiles posted on Instagram Thursday night.
“I have no words. This decision feels unjust and comes as a significant blow not just to me but to everyone who has championed my journey,” she wrote. “To add to the heartbreak, the unprompted racially driven attacks on social media are wrong and extremely hurtful.”
How did we get here?
On Aug. 5, after finishing in fifth place in the floor exercises competition, Chiles’ coaches successfully appealed an error that had initially undervalued one of her jumps. The correction boosted her to third place and the bronze medal. Five days later, however, the decision was reversed: The Romanian team, whose gymnast had initially won the bronze, argued to the Court of Arbitration for Sport that Chiles’ coaches submitted their inquiry four seconds past a one-minute deadline.
The court sided with Romania and took Chiles’ bronze away, on essentially a not-at-all-clear technicality.
But here’s where things get extra murky: The U.S. team subsequently presented video evidence showing that the inquiry was, in fact, submitted 20 seconds before the 60-second deadline. Yet the Olympic committee refused to reconsider the decision, on grounds the new evidence came too late for reconsideration.
This isn’t just about a medal, though. This is about how the rules are applied — and to whom. To many folks, seeing a white competitor defeat a Black woman over a four-second delay feels like more than just a mistake. The overriding sentiment of many Black people on social media is something like this:
They can’t stand to see Black women win.
From the moment the Romanian gymnast spilled white-woman tears after Chiles replaced her on the winner’s podium, racists on social media turned their outrage on Chiles. They called her the n-word, online and in DMs to her family. They said she didn’t deserve a medal. They used A.I. to create cruel, degrading images of her — including depicting Chiles as a monkey — and shared them in public.
Adding insult to injury, “right-wing (social media) personalities and racists,” as Vox wrote, began “peddling narratives about how the Olympics cheated white gymnasts out of medals, or saying that Black athletes like Chiles are cheaters themselves.”
On Aug. 9, Jordan’s mother Gina Chiles posted on X, formerly known as Twitter — doing what any Black mom would do: coming to her daughter’s defense.
“The racist disgusting comments are still happening in 2024,” Gina Chiles wrote. “I’m tired of people who say it no longer exists. My daughter is a highly decorated Olympian with the biggest heart and a level of sportsmanship that is unmatched…and she’s being called disgusting things.”
Right on cue, the “rules are rules” crowd insisted that the arbitration court’s decision to take away Chiles’ bronze meda has nothing to do with the race. But here’s the thing: Jordan Chiles didn’t lose her medal because she faltered in her performance. She didn’t miss a step, fall off the beam, or misjudge a landing.
Her medal was stripped from her over four seconds — an alleged delay that her team has proof didn’t exist.
On Aug. 11, Jordan’s sister Jazmin wrote on Instagram that Jordan, who also won gold in Paris, doesn’t deserve this treatment. Her sister proudly represented her country on the world stage. It’s proof, she says, that Black people, and especially Black women are treated differently.
“Racism is real, it exists, it is alive and well,” she wrote.
“They have officially, five days later, stripped her of one of her medals,” Jazmin continued. “Not because she didn’t win, not because she was (doping), not because she stepped out of bounds. Not because she wasn’t good enough. But because the judges failed to give her difficulty (points) and forced an inquiry to be made.”
Jordan Chiles — like Simone Biles, another Black woman and the most decorated Olympic gymnast of all time — has spoken openly about racism in gymnastics. In fact, Chiles nearly quit the sport in 2017 because of it.
“I wanted to be done, because I didn’t think … the sport wanted me,” Chiles told NBC News in June. “I didn’t think people around me wanted to see this beautiful Black girl in a [leotard] anymore.”
In Feb. 2022, the powerhouse gymnastics team at the University of California – Los Angeles — where Chiles began competing that fall — was rocked by a scandal in which a white gymnast allegedly called a Black teammate the n-word.
As I wrote then, “The ability to win has never protected Black athletes from racism.” In fact, people sympathized with the white gymnast when she complained her Black teammates were intimidating her.
In the meantime, folks have rallied around Jordan, posting on social media that she’ll always be “that girl,” forever a champion. “Jordan Chiles, you’ll always be famous,” one wrote. The rapper Flavor Flav, a newly-minted Olympics fan, even made her a custom bronze clock necklace.
In response, Chiles wrote in her Instagram statement that she’s been “overwhelmed by the love” folks have shown her — and she’s not giving up the fight to keep the medal she earned.
“I will approach this challenge as I have others – and I will make every effort to ensure that justice is done,” Chiles wrote. “I believe that at the end of this journey, the people in control will do the right thing.
This editorial was originally published in Word In Black.
