Remember the USA gymnastics controversy involving Jordan Chiles? She won individual bronze in the floor exercise at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris — until Romania filed an appeal.
Days later, the International Olympic Committee decided in Romania’s favor and ordered Chiles to return her medal.
“I still have the medal if anyone’s asking,” Chiles, 23, told former WNBA star Candace Parker’s The Trophy Room, a part of Bleacher Report.
“It’s still a bronze in my head,” the gymnast told Parker. “It’s still a bronze in my heart.”
The mic drop confession was revealed during a March 18 interview. “I still have it and I can’t really continue on my life with having something so small but so big in the world carry in my heart for the rest of my life,” Chiles explained. “I can’t let that happen.”
After Chiles returned from Paris, she headed back to school at the University of California at Los Angeles to compete for the Bruins.
‘So now I’m enjoying life,” she said. “I get to enjoy the support now.”
Chiles thanked her fans for that support and vowed to “continue to fight” and “enjoy being able to stand on my own two feet and be proud of what I’ve accomplished.”
The USA women’s team won gold overall, while Chiles’…
