Gymnastics is always one of the best parts of the Summer Olympics, and this year was no different. Along with both the women and men’s team earning medals, we got to witness Simone Biles become the actual gymnastics GOAT, and we were all saddled up for every appearance of Pommel Horse Guy. However, one situation put a little bit of a damper on these Team USA athletes’ time in Paris, and that’s the drama with Jordan Chiles’ individual medal for the floor exercise. As the saga continues, Biles has spoken out, saying she wants “justice” for her best friend and training partner.
The past couple of weeks has unquestionably been difficult for all of the athletes involved in the brouhaha concerning the bronze medal for individual floor exercise. The third-place finish has jumped back and forth between Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu and Team USA’s Jordan Chiles, and the saga continues in the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Now, Simone Biles has weighed in, telling People that she has, indeed, been in touch with Chiles. Biles said:
We’ve been FaceTiming, texting, just being girls. I did talk to her on one of the days, and I was like, ‘You know what, Jordan, you have to feel all these feels. Don’t let these emotions stop you. This will be the healthiest way to get all of this out.’
Leave it to Simone Biles to focus on her friend’s mental health during a time of such uncertainty. The GOAT said they definitely all want justice for Jordan Chiles, but she told her friend that regardless of what happens, they all witnessed her great routine, and that can’t be taken away. Biles continued:
We saw what you did. And it’s an unfortunate circumstance because something like this has never happened before and it’s truly a shame, but we wish all three girls could get the medal and unfortunately in gymnastics that’s not the case. Do we think they did the correct procedures to come to this ruling? No. That’s really why we want that justice for Jordan and why we’re going to keep supporting her and uplifting her.
Jordan Chiles was the final gymnast to compete on the floor exercise during the individual competition, and after her score was announced, it appeared that Ana Barbosu had finished in third place behind Simone Biles and Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, beating Chiles by a score of 13.700 to 13.666. However, Chiles’ coach filed an appeal, and despite Barbosu already celebrating her supposed win, the American gymnast’s score was changed to 13.766, giving her the bronze.
Arguments after the fact claimed that the coach hadn’t filed the appeal within the time period given to do so, and Jordan Chiles’ original score was reinstated, once again making the Romanian gymnast the bronze medalist. Additional appeals have been filed to prove the original inquiry was made in a timely manner, but a final judgment may not come quickly.
In the meantime, Simone Biles’ bestie has been receiving much love and support, including from celebrities like Flavor Flav, who gifted her a bronze clock (naturally). Jordan Chiles may be taking a social media break, but Biles has her back. She said:
I know she’s not on social media, but some of the funny things I’ve seen, I said, ‘Okay, Jordan, can I send you something that I think you would really like right now?’ And so I’ve sent her little things, and it was like one of them was these four or five girls guarding a medal, and I thought that was the cutest. And then I sent her Flavor Flav’s bronze [medal he made for her] and then I sent her LeBron [James]’s tweet. So just things to uplift her and know that she still has that support all-around.
You have to love the friendship between Simon Biles and Jordan Chiles, and it’s great to know that the latter has so many people in her corner as this mess continues. If you want to relive some of the best moments from the Paris Olympics, there’s plenty of coverage to be found with a Peacock subscription.
