Flavor Flav Unveils Special Bronze Gift for Jordan Chiles Amid Medal Controversy

Kristen Wong | Aug 13, 2024

Jack Gruber-USA TODAY Sports

It’s not quite an Olympic bronze medal, but it’s close.

American rapper Flavor Flav offered Jordan Chiles a custom-made present amid ongoing drama surrounding her disputed bronze medal win in the women’s gymnastics floor final in the Paris Games. On Sunday, the International Olympic Committee announced its decision to strip Chiles of her bronze medal and award it to Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu instead.

As USA Gymnastics continues to fight for Chiles’s right to keep her medal, Flavor Flav made an incredibly kind-hearted gesture to give the 23-year-old gymnast a special bronze prize that’s unequivocally her own.

In a video posted to X (formerly known as Twitter), the rapper unveiled a bronze clock necklace he created in her honor. The timepiece was studded with dazzling bronze rhinestones inside and out and featured bronze-colored hands set against a number-less face. 

Flavor Flav wrote in the caption, “USA gonna Fight the Powers that be,,, in the meantime between time,,, Imma always a man of my word.”

USA gonna Fight the Powers that be,,, in the meantime between time,,,
Imma always a man of my word @ChilesJordan https://t.co/evxFPV0YEd pic.twitter.com/rz72uZeWEz

— FLAVOR FLAV (@FlavorFlav) August 13, 2024

Chiles’s mom, Gina, replied to Flavor Flav’s sweet gesture and wrote on X, “Thank you. Means the world.  She's not on socials right now as you can imagine.  I'll share it with her.”

Thank you. Means the world. She's not on socials right now as you can imagine. I'll share it with her. 🫶🏽 https://t.co/HzavHHYxhp

— Gina Chiles (@gina_chiles) August 13, 2024

On Aug. 5, Chiles won a bronze medal in the floor final due to a late inquiry into her difficulty score made by her coach, Cecile Landi. The judges accepted the appeal and raised her score, boosting Chiles from fifth to third place.

Shortly after, the Romanian Federation of Gymnastics filed a protest with the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) challenging Landi’s appeal. An arbitral panel for the CAS ruled on Saturday that Landi submitted her appeal four seconds too late and that the bronze medal should be given to Barbosu instead. As of now, the bronze medal belongs to Barbosu.

The disputed bronze medal would have marked the first individual Olympic medal of Chiles’s career. During the controversy, Chiles announced she was taking a break from social media for her mental health.