Jordan Chiles paused for 14 seconds, looking down to collect his thoughts and feelings.
Asked what Childs felt she lost when the International Olympic Committee stripped her of her Olympic bronze medal in the women’s gymnastics floor exercise, she paused mid-answer. The audience at the Forbes Power Women’s Summit in New York applauded when she gathered again and put the microphone to her mouth.
Fighting back tears, Childs said the controversy that marked the end of last month’s Paris Olympics cost her more than just a bronze medal. She said the controversy was “not about the medal” but about another reality that left her feeling “stripped away.”
“The biggest thing that was taken away from me was the recognition of who I am, not just my sport but who I am as a person,” Childs said.
“It’s about the color of my skin,” Childs added. “It’s about the fact that there were things that led to my status as an athlete.”
The on-stage interview Wednesday, which took place before Childs’ appearance on MTV’s Video Music Awards that night, was the gymnast’s most extensive comment since the IOC announced it would redistribute Childs’ bronze medal to Romania’s Ana Barbosu following an appeal by the Romanian Gymnastics Federation.
In the floor final on August 5, Childs originally placed fifth, but was moved up to third after her coach, Cecil Landi, successfully appealed to raise her score by 0.1 point. Five days later, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that Landi’s appeal should be overturned because it was made four seconds after the one-minute window for such appeals. Following the ruling, the International Gymnastics Federation demoted Childs to fifth, and the IOC redistributed the medals. USA Gymnastics said it would appeal the CAS decision to the Swiss Federal Tribunal.
Childs said she felt “left in the dark” and unsupported during the controversy. She felt her voice wasn’t being heard during the appeal process, and compared her feelings to when she said she lost her love for gymnastics because of emotional and verbal abuse from her coach in 2018.
“Nobody was listening to the fact that there were things we had in place,” Childs said. “There were things we should have seen coming, but they didn’t happen.”
“The biggest thing that was taken away from me was the recognition of who I was. Not just my sport, but the recognition of who I am as a person.”
Olympic gymnast @ChilesJordan I talked to @MoiraForbes About the 2024 bronze medal revocation #PowerWomenSummit. https://t.co/gRF3MBW6J9 pic.twitter.com/Fjett19aDY
— ForbesWomen (@ForbesWomen) September 11, 2024
USA Gymnastics argued that there was video evidence showing that Landi filed her appeal 47 seconds after Childs’ score was posted and 13 seconds before the end of the review period, leaving her with insufficient time to properly explain her case to CAS.
Childs previously called the decision “unfair.”
“(It) has been a huge blow not only to me but to everyone who has supported my journey,” Childs wrote in a post to X on Aug. 15. “As heartbreaking as it is, the spontaneous racist attacks that have been perpetrated on social media are wrong and extremely hurtful.”
Nearly a month later, Childs maintains that she and her coaches followed the rules and did “everything completely and absolutely right” on the floor exercises.
“I made history and I will continue to make history,” said Childs, who won gold in the women’s team event at the Olympics.
Childs, who is returning to UCLA for the upcoming college gymnastics season, was presented with a bronze watch at the VMAs by Flavor Flav, who promised to make her one after she was stripped of her medal.
On Wednesday, Childs receives a bronze watch from Flavor Flav. (Noam Galai / Getty Images for MTV)
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