Olympic gold medalist Jordan Chiles is sharing when she first experienced mistreatment as a Black athlete.
“The first time that I finally realized that I wasn’t going to be able to be a typical athlete was the judging,” Chiles says in her debut memoir I’m That Girl: Living the Power of My Dreams. “I’m literally doing almost the exact same thing as any other person, but why am I not getting the same scores?”
Chiles began gymnastics at the age of four and as she went on to higher competitions she noticed that the judges weren’t just looking at her gymnastics skills but her appearance. She shared that she was constantly judged on her physicality and compared to other athletes her age.
“Everything was different,” she says. “[Judges] didn’t know what to do with [me] because it was like, ‘She’s talented, yes, but she’s curvy,’ or people would tell me that I ‘look like a man’ or ‘you shouldn’t be here’ or ‘you don’t deserve to be in the sport.’”
Social media has also weighed on Chiles and with the lack of representation of women with her body type in the sport, it was something that the Olympian had to find peace with.
“It was definitely something I had to push past,” she says.
However, the question still remained on how she was still “othered” by judges in the sport.
“‘Why are these people telling me all these things when I’m literally doing the exact same thing as everybody else?’” she asks.
Despite the barriers that Chiles had to face, she is loving her time at UCLA where she gets to study for her degree and dominate on the mat.
“A lot of people don’t get the opportunity or have the ability to be a student athlete, and I get to embrace that and enjoy that,” Chiles says. “And I continue to strive for greatness every single day. I mean, my team is doing amazing. We’re getting better each and every week, and I am honored to be a part of that.”
Jordan Chiles Bronze Medal Controversy
In another excerpt from I’m That Girl, Chiles recalled another painful moment when her bronze medal was stripped from her at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Chiles originally placed fifth but when Coach Cecile gave judges her inquiry about Chiles not being judged for her her level of difficulty correctly, it forced judges to rescore her to add in her difficulty in skill. After the rescoring she was placed in third. Chiles was at the time awarded the bronze medal making the first all-Black podium in gymnastics history which included teammate Simone Biles securing silver and Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade on top with gold. However, after the podium, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) revoked the rescore arguing that Coach Cecile Landi was late with her inquiry and that it be voided.
“Suddenly, the car went quiet. I’m surprised everyone couldn’t hear the sound of my heart breaking, because it absolutely did, there in that back seat. My brain stopped even functioning within my body. Somewhere faraway, I could see my mom shaking her head, and hear her saying ‘Why? Why!’” Chiles writes.
She spoke about the mistreatment last year on the TODAY show in November 2024 and how frustrating the whole ordeal was.
“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’m That Girl: Living the Power of My Dreams is available for preorder now and will be available whereever books are sold.
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