Jordan Chiles flaunts Olympic medal amid ongoing appeal over bronze controversy

Jordan Chiles is refusing to let her Olympic bronze medal heartbreak bring her down heading into 2025 after flaunting her team gold on social media.

The Team USA gymnast was controversially stripped of her individual bronze in the floor exercise at this summer’s Paris Games after a dispute involving Romania’s Ana Barbosu.

After initially coming in fifth place, a United States appeal raised Chiles’ marks by one-tenth to move her up to third behind Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade and teammate Simone Biles. 

Yet days after the Olympics that changed when the Romanian athletic commission filed an appeal of their own over the scores that dropped Barbosu from the medal stand.   

The appeal found the United States’ original challenge of the scores was filed four seconds too late and was invalid, meaning Chiles had her coveted bronze medal taken away from her.

In an Instagram post on New Year’s Eve, the 23-year-old re-shared a Team USA photo of her posing alongside the gold medal she won in the team final alongside the likes of Biles and Suni Lee.

The Team USA gymnast flaunted her team gold in an Instagram post on New Year’s Eve

Back in September, Chiles filed an appeal in a Swiss court as she attempts to get back the bronze she won in Paris.

Team USA initially tried to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after she was stripped of her medal, saying it had uncovered video evidence that their appeal on the day was made 47 seconds after Chiles’ initial score was posted. The CAS declined to re-open the case.

The CAS is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, and appeals to any case go straight to the nation’s supreme court.

Chiles’ appeal said her ‘right to be heard’ was violated when the CAS refused to consider new evidence. The appeal also claims that the president of the CAS panel had a conflict of interest because of prior legal ties in Romania.

The appeal was backed by both USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. In a statement, USA Gymnastics said it made a ‘collective, strategic decision to have Jordan lead the initial filing. USAG is closely coordinating with Jordan and her legal team and will make supportive filings with the court in the continued pursuit of justice for Jordan.’

The Oregon-born athlete said in a social media post at the time that her situation ‘feels unjust’ and added she had been the subject of ‘unprompted racially driven attacks on social media.’