Jordan Chiles’ sister spoke out in her defense after the U.S. gymnast lost her Olympic bronze medal following a court ruling on Saturday, saying that in the history of the Games such drastic actions have only been taken for cheating or doping.
“She did neither,” Jazmin Chiles said of her sister in a fuming comment on her Instagram stories. “Racism is real, it exists, it is alive and well,” she wrote on the social media platform.
“They have officially, five days later, stripped her of one of her medals. Not because she didn’t win, not because she was drugged, not because she stepped out of bounds. Not because she wasn’t good enough. But because the judges failed to give her difficulty and forced an inquiry to be made.”
Newsweek contacted Jazmin Chiles by direct message on Instagram on Sunday morning.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled on Saturday that the appeal made by U.S. coach Cecile Landi to have 0.1 added to Chiles’ initial score of 13.666 came outside the one-minute window allowed by the International Gymnastic Federation (FIG) by four seconds.
The difficulty score inquiry lodged by Landi gave Chiles an additional score which lifted her from fifth place to third, bringing the U.S. athlete to the podium and bumping Romania’s Ana Barbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea to fourth and fifth place respectively. Following the court’s ruling, the initial order is to be restored, with Barbosu third, Maneca-Voinea fourth, and Chiles fifth.
Jazmin Chiles then stressed that the medal was taken away from her sister for “four seconds of time that would have never needed to happen if the judges did their job.”
In a later comment in a follow-up Instagram story, Jazmin Chiles specified that she was speaking of the racism behind the “vulgar and vile comments that are being made toward my sister,” which she said included several racist slurs. “I’m not calling them young ladies racist, nor am I saying racism is the root cause of this.”
She added: “Just give the other girls a bronze and leave it at that! Period.”
On the same day, Chiles announced on Instagram that she would be removing herself from social media for her mental health.
USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympics and Paralympic Committee issued a joint statement in the wake of the court’s ruling on Saturday, expressing support for the athlete and condemning the racist attacks against her.
“The inquiry into the Difficulty Value of Jordan Chiles’ floor exercise routine was filed in good faith and, we believed, in accordance with FIG rules to ensure accurate scoring,” they wrote.
“Throughout the appeal process, Jordan has been subject to consistent, utterly baseless and extremely hurtful attacks on social media. No athlete should be subject to such treatment. We condemn the attacks and those who engage, support or instigate them. We commend Jordan for conducting herself with integrity both on and off the competition floor, and we continue to stand by and support her.”
The U.S. gymnast’s mother, Gina Chiles, has also condemned the online backlash against her daughter, reporting on “racist, disgusting comments” directed at the American athlete.
The racist disgusting comments are still happening in 2024. 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.
— Gina Chiles (@gina_chiles) August 9, 2024
“The racist disgusting comments are still happening in 2024,” she wrote on X earlier this week. “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.”
Barbosu, the Romanian gymnast who should now get the bronze medal, said she just wanted for things to be fair for all athletes. “I only want for everybody to be fair, we don’t want to start picking on other athletes of any nationality,” she told reporters, as quoted by The Guardian.
“We as athletes don’t deserve something like that, we only want to perform as best as we can and to be rewarded based on our performance. The problems lie with the judges, with their calculations and decisions.”
