American Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles has announced that she will attempt to make a return to Team USA for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Chiles, 25, won gold with her teammates in the team all-around at the 2024 Paris Olympics before being stripped of a bronze medal on appeal days after the event ended.
With questions being raised about her possible future with the Olympic team, Chiles sought to set the record straight. In a short video, Chiles was joined by model Winnie Harlow and musician Normani on a beach in LA while basketball icon Michael Jordan provided the voiceover.
‘Why again? Because the dream is still there. Why continue? Because there’s still more to give. Why now? Because not every chapter ends when people expect it to,’ Jordan was heard saying.
‘When the world asks why she’s back for a third time? The answer’s simple,’ Jordan added before Chiles broke in to say, ‘Why not?’
Chiles then pulled down her lower lip to reveal she was wearing a blinged out grill in her teeth that read ‘LA 2028.’
American gymnast Jordan Chiles announced she will come back for the 2028 Olympics
Chiles announced the move with a video featuring Michael Jordan, Winnie Harlow and Normani
The video ended with Chiles flashing a grill with the words ‘LA 2028’ on it
Fans celebrated the announcement on social media, cheering on Chiles amid her preparations.
‘Yesss! I knew you couldn’t resist the taste of a home Olympics, can’t wait to see the journey! And to have three icons involved in the making of this trailer is such a flex!; read one comment on YouTube.
Another said, ‘Yesss girl!!!!!! See you in 2028!!!!!!’
Chiles’ mother, Gina, tweeted out ‘Let’s GOOOOOO’ with a few fire emojis as well.
Three of her teammates from the 2024 team, Suni Lee, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera, have also announced their intentions to qualify for Los Angeles.
Back in January, Chiles’ attempt to take back the bronze that was taken off her neck took another step when a request for her case to be heard again by the Court of Arbitration for Sport was approved in Switzerland’s Federal Supreme Court.
Chiles was stripped of her bronze in the floor exercise of the last Olympic Games following a dispute involving Romania’s Ana Barbosu.
After initially coming in fifth place, a United States appeal raised Chiles’ marks by one-tenth to move her up to third behind Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade and teammate Simone Biles. Barbosu was in tears while the US team celebrated wildly.
Chiles is still battling in an attempt to win back the bronze medal she won in the 2024 Olympics
Chiles celebrates with teammate Simone Biles after winning bronze at the Paris Games
But after an appeal, Romania’s Ana Barbosu was awarded the medal Chiles thought she’d won
Yet that changed when the Romanian athletic commission later filed an appeal of their own to the International Olympic Committee over the scores that dropped Barbosu from the medal stand.
Days after the event, the IOC concluded that the original United States challenge of the scores was filed four seconds outside of the one-minute deadline to contest scores and was therefore invalid, meaning Chiles was ordered to return the medal after it was reallocated to the Romanian athlete.
The federal court now says that it wants CAS to examine a recording that could show the original US challenge of the judged score was within a one-minute deadline on the field of play.
‘In the highly exceptional circumstances of the case in question,’ the Swiss Federal Tribunal said in a statement, ‘it considers that there is a likelihood for the audio-visual recording of the final on Aug. 5, 2024 to lead to a modification of the contested award in favor of the applicant (Chiles).’
