In August, something terrible went down at the Paris Olympics. All eyes were on women’s gymnastics, and most American eyes were on the American women’s team – Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey. There was a lot of focus on Brazil vs. USA, Rebeca Andrade vs. Simone Biles. But after gymnastics wrapped, suddenly the Olympic Committee wanted to take away Jordan Chiles’ bronze medal on individual floor. The original argument was that the judges had to change the score (because the judges underestimated the score), but the complaint didn’t come in time. Except that was a lie, and yet the Court of Arbitration still held with it, that Chiles had to be stripped of her bronze medal. By the time all of this sh-t went down, Chiles had already left Paris and she was back home. With her medal. US Gymnastics is still fighting for Jordan in Swiss court, and they must have told Jordan to just go undercover while they tried to work something out. But Chiles went on the Today Show on Monday, and she revealed that she still has her bronze.

Jordan Chiles is speaking her truth. The Olympian has been embroiled in a tense back and forth over the bronze medal she won for Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Now, four months after her win has been questioned, the 23-year-old gymnast spoke out publicly for the first time, admitting to being very nervous to share her side of the story and revealing new details.

“I have the medal,” she said to Hoda Kotb on the Nov. 11 Today show of the bronze medal that is currently in dispute. “The medal is mine.”

This is news after it was previously reported that Chiles was stripped of the medal and forced to hand it over to Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu, who was photographed wearing a bronze medal for the individual floor routine that was initially awarded to Chiles.

“Honestly, it’s been really, really hard just to comprehend everything that’s been happening,” Chiles admitted. “Finally, now I feel comfortable, in a way, to talk about what has been happening. I feel like I recently have been trying to tell myself I’ve been OK, the past four, five months, and it’s honestly been a very, very difficult time.”

Noting that she’s ready “to speak on my truth,” Chiles admitted to struggling with the concept that she could make the right moves and still lose her bronze medal. “It’s hard to tell yourself that everything’s going to be fine when you know literally we didn’t do anything wrong,” she explained. “Everything was very right. Everything was in the time that it needed to be, and for them to come back and say it was four seconds late when we’ve had proof. We’ve had everything that really can show that everything was right. I’ve been like, ‘OK, I can’t control what’s happening on the outside. I can only control what my truth is.’ I know what the truth is, and I know that we were right in everything that we were doing.”

As for why this particular medal was so important to her despite Chiles helping Team USA win gold in Paris, she explained, “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. And with this floor medal it was like, ‘Wow, I never expected myself to even make a floor final.’”

It was also important to her to stand on the podium alongside teammate Biles, who won silver, and Brazilian gymnast Rebecca Andrade, who secured the gold. “It was an all-Black podium, that was history made,” Chiles shared. “That was something I was very proud to be a part of.”

[From E! News]

Around the 8:20 mark of the video, Jordan finally tells Hoda that she still has the medal and Hoda starts laughing. The Today Show even added the photo of the Romanian gymnast holding her bronze medal too, which is funny. I think what happened is what USAG said SHOULD happen, which is that Jordan keeps her bronze and if the Olympic Committee wanted to give the Romanian an extra bronze, so be it, but Jordan wasn’t turning anything over. What is the IOC gonna do, storm into Jordan’s LA home and demand that she hand over the medal? This was so poorly handled by the IOC and CAS.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.