Olympian Simone Biles is making sure she has Jordan Chiles’ back as her USA Gymnastics teammate fights to get her bronze medal back.
Biles, who has seven gold medals, said she’s been doing everything she can to support Chiles while she deals with the fallout from being stripped of her third-place win at the Paris Olympics earlier this month.
“We’ve been FaceTiming, texting, just being girls,” Biles told People in an interview published Monday. “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.’”
Chiles initially finished fifth in the floor finals in Paris but was bumped to bronze after her coach, Cecile Landi, appealed her score to officials, arguing Chiles’ score did not accurately calculate her routine’s difficulty rating.
But afterward, two Romanian gymnasts petitioned to have Landi’s appeal overturned, arguing that the coach’s request came four seconds past the deadline for score adjustments.
USA Gymnastics officials later revealed that the body which oversaw the appeal, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, was refusing to reconsider its decision to rescind Chiles’ medal despite evidence that called the timing into question.
Though Biles, who won silver during the event, told People that, “at the end of the day,” Chiles is “still that girl,” she said she wanted “justice” for her teammate amid the unprecedented Olympics dispute.
“We saw what you did,” Biles said of Chiles’ floor performance. “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,” she added. “That’s really why we want that justice for Jordan and why we’re going to keep supporting her and uplifting her.”
Earlier this month, Biles kept positive as she reached out to her teammate in a post on Instagram Stories.
“Sending you so much love Jordan,” Biles wrote. “Keep your chin up Olympic champ! We love you!”
Chiles herself addressed the situation in a statement on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Aug. 15, saying the decision felt “unjust and comes as a significant blow.”
