Jordan Chiles Reveals Moment She Learned She’d Been Stripped of Her Bronze Medal: ‘Sound of My Heart Breaking’ (Exclusive)

PEOPLE has an exclusive excerpt of the Olympic gymnast’s new memoir, ‘I’m That Girl: Living the Power of My Dreams’

After making headlines in August when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decided to strip Jordan Chiles of the bronze medal she had earned during the Paris Summer Olympics, the gymnast is opening up about the ordeal in her new book.

While Chiles, 23, declines to comment on the status of her appeal with the Swiss Federal Tribunal and whether she still has the medal in her possession amid the ongoing litigation, she does tell PEOPLE that I’m That Girl: Living the Power of my Dreams, out March 4 via Harper Influence, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, has helped her reclaim the narrative.

“I honestly wanted to be like, ‘I’m Jordan Chiles,'” she says, “‘and this is my story.’ “

Chiles had made history in Paris as part of the first all-Black Olympic gymnastics podium when she stood proudly alongside Brazil’s gold medalist Rebeca Andrade and her silver-medalist USA teammate Simone Biles.

Just days later, Chiles lost the medal she had earned for her floor routine after CAS argued that her coach Cecile Canqueteau-Landi’s inquiry — which contested her routine’s difficulty rating and had initially increased her score — hadn’t been made within the one-minute deadline. 

Despite the ordeal, Chiles says her lifelong dream of achieving an individual medal at the Olympics remains alive — as do a lot of her dreams. She’s leaving the door open for a possible Olympics return in 2028.

“It’s not a yes, but it’s not a no. I’m allowed to want a lot of things for myself,” she says. “Of course an individual medal is something I continue to strive for. But I know myself, and I know the work and effort I put in [in Paris], and that was a history-making podium. I’m just very proud that I was a part of that. At the end of the day, I always just tell people, ‘I’m just like you guys. I’m trying to strive for greatness — just like everybody else.’” 

Read an exclusive excerpt from I’m That Girl below.

“They made the ruling,” one of them said. CAS ruled that Cecile was four seconds over the one minute allotted mark, according to the Omega clock, when she went to put in the inquiry. And therefore, they are overturning the inquiry. That drops Jordan back down to fifth place. Ana will take the medal, and Sabrina will take fourth place.

Suddenly, the car went quiet. I’m surprised everyone couldn’t hear the sound of my heart breaking, because it absolutely did, there in that back seat. My brain stopped even functioning within my body. Somewhere faraway, I could see my mom shaking her head, and hear her saying “Why? Why!“

We were still in an Uber, being driven by someone we did not know, and the only way I could react was with silent tears behind my sunglasses, as the Uber continued driving us through the streets of Manhattan. To be honest, I’m not what I would call a vulnerable person. Expressing my feelings has always been difficult for me. Maybe everything that I’ve been through in my life has made me that way. But in that moment, my thoughts were just all over the place. I couldn’t pick out a single thought to focus on; I just felt thrown into a hurricane and spit out the other side.

When the Uber stopped and let us out, I just took off walking. I don’t know if my family called out after me. I don’t know if they ran to catch up with me. I just took off walking, trying to process those words. We’re so sorry. This is so wrong. The Omega clock… Ana will take the medal….

I’m That Girl will be published on March 4, 2025 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.