Simone Biles and Suni Lee came to the support of Jordan Chiles on social media as the American gymnast’s bronze medal win in the floor exercise is in limbo.
Chiles may end up having to return the Olympic medal after the Center of Arbitration for Sport ruled Saturday that her score must revert to the original mark because the U.S. did not file an inquiry with judges in time. The International Olympic Committee on Sunday determined that Chiles must return her medal, but USA Gymnastics appealed the ruling, saying it had video evidence showing coaches made the inquiry in time.
As Chiles wrote on her Instagram Stories over the weekend that she was heartbroken over the chaotic situation, Biles and Lee offered messages of support.
“Sending you so much love Jordan,” Biles wrote on her Instagram Stories. “Keep your chin up olympic champ! We love you!”
Lee wrote a loving message of support as well and took a swipe at Olympic officials over the debacle.
“All this talk about the athlete, what about the judges?? Completely unacceptable. This is awful and I’m gutted for Jordan,” she wrote. “I got your back forever Jo. (You) have all my flowers and you will ALWAYS be an Olympic champion.”
Team USA wrote on its X account, “Forever THAT girl.”
If Chiles is stripped of her medal, she will become only the third gymnast in history to have an Olympic medal stripped. The other two were China’s Dong Fangxiao and Romania’s Andreea Răducan, both of whom lost their medals from the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Răducan’s individual all-around gold medal was stripped after testing positive for a banned substance from cold-medicine pills given to her by a team doctor. China’s team all-around bronze was stripped after it was discovered Dong was just 14 years old in Sydney, which is two years too young to compete.
Fox News’ Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.
