Category: Gymnastics

A tearful Jordan Chiles says she still has the Olympic bronze medal she’s fighting to keep

As she fought back tears, Jordan Chiles explained why she still has her bronze medal.

Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles still has the Olympic bronze medal that dominated headlines this summer. In a tearful interview with Today, Jordan spoke about her emotional journey after the Paris Olympics and why she’s still holding on to the medal.

Many may never know what Chiles has been experiencing behind the scenes as she continues to fight for the right to keep the bronze medal from her floor routine after it was stripped away. But, on Monday, she spoke with Hoda Kotb about her continued battle and why it means so much.

During a tearful interview, Chiles revealed what’s happened since Paris, the support she’s received and why her bronze medal means more to her than even the gold medal she won with Team USA. Here’s part of what she shared in a nearly ten-minute segment:

“It was like a cherry on top. My redemption tour going into Paris was — ‘Yes.’ Coming back with a gold, coming back with the understanding that I was able to go out there and be the best version of myself — With this floor medal it was like, ‘Wow, I never expected myself to make a floor final’…

“Plus it was an all Black podium. That was history being made. I was very glad to be a part of…”

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Florida gymnastics 2025 schedule unveiled, plus postseason dates

The regular-season schedule opens up on Friday, Jan. 10 inside the O’Connell Center.

The Florida gymnastics team’s regular-season schedule for the 2025 campaign was unveiled on Friday, revealing the Gators’ 10 match dates for a total of 12 opponents. Eight of those matchups will be against fellow Southeastern Conference schools.

The regular-season schedule opens up on Friday, Jan. 10 inside the O’Connell Center with three non-conference opponents arriving in Gainesville for a four-pack of gymnastics action. The Michigan State Spartans, Nebraska Cornhuskers and Northern Illinois Huskies will all be in Gainesville for the Gators’ Club Gym Night.

The SEC slate begins the following week on the road in Baton Rouge against the LSU Tigers.

Florida faces five programs that earned bids — as did the Gators — in last season’s NCAA women’s gymnastics tournament, with four of them having advanced alongside them to the championships semifinals. The Orange and Blue ultimately finished fourth in the championship finals with LSU taking home the top prize.

Take a look below at what Florida faces in the 2025 regular season, along with the postseason schedule for next spring.

Gators Gymnastics 2025 schedule

Date Opponent Site Time (ET)
1/10  Michigan St, Nebraska, Northern Illinois Home 6:45 p.m.
1/17  LSU Away 7:30 p.m.
1/24  Georgia (Alumni Night) Home 5:45 p.m.
2/2  West Virginia Away 2 p.m.
2/7  Arkansas Away 7 p.m.
2/14  Auburn (Gators Link to Pink) Home 8:15 p.m.
2/21  Oklahoma Away 9 p.m.
2/28  Missouri (Equality Night) Home 5:45 p.m.
3/7  Alabama Away TBA
3/14  Kentucky (Senior Night) Home 6:45 p.m.

2025 Postseason Dates

March 22  Southeastern Conference Championships
April 2-6  NCAA Regional Championships
April 2-5  Sites: Penn State & Utah
April 3-6  Sites: Alabama & Washington
April 17 & 19  NCAA Championships (Dickies Arena / Fort Worth, TX)

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Florida to host 2028 NCAA Gymnastics Regional in O’Connell Center

2028 will be the 15th NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Regional held in the O’Connell Center. 

The NCAA announced over 240 host site selections for various collegiate sports on Wednesday, including women’s college volleyball. Among those who earned the prestigious honor was the Florida volleyball program, which was picked to host the NCAA Gymnastics Regional Championships in 2028.

The regional sites for the 2027 and 2028 NCAA gymnastics postseasons were featured in the announcement. Fort Worth, Texas, remains the site for the 2027 NCAA Championships, with the 2028 final site to be announced at a later date.

This will be the 15th NCAA Regional held in the O’Connell Center.

“This is terrific news that NCAA Regional action is returning to Gainesville in 2028,” Florida head coach Jenny Rowland offered.

“It was a great experience for our team to play host to regionals this past season and Gator fans turned out with almost double the attendance of any other region site,” she continued. “This is an opportunity for gymnastics fans to cheer some of the nation’s top gymnasts as they compete for a national championship berth.”

Upcoming NCAA Gymnastics Regional & Championship Sites

Year Regional Sites/Dates NCAA Championships (Host)
2025 April 3-5 Dickies Arena, Ft. Worth, Texas (Texas Woman’s University)
Alabama
Penn State
Utah
Washington
2026 April 2-4 Dickies Arena, Ft. Worth, Texas (Texas Woman’s University)
Arizona State
Kentucky
Louisiana State
Oregon State
2027 TBA Dickies Arena, Ft. Worth, Texas (Texas Woman’s University)
Arkansas
Denver
Georgia
NC State
2028 TBA TBA
Auburn
Florida
Michigan
Utah

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Olympic gold medalist Hezly Rivera commits to LSU gymnastics

The future of LSU’s gymnastics program is in good hands.

The defending national champion LSU gymnastics team could be poised for a repeat with the top gymnast in the nation, [autotag]Haleigh Bryant[/autotag], returning for one final season in 2025.

But even when Bryant and other stars move on, the future of the program seems to be in very good hands.

On Thursday, coach [autotag]Jay Clark[/autotag] and the Tigers picked up a massive commitment from Olympic gold medalist [autotag]Hezly Rivera[/autotag], a current high school junior who competed as a member of the Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics this past summer.

Rivera ultimately did not compete as part of the team final, where the United States won gold, but she still received a gold medal as a member of the team while competing individually in the bars and beam.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DAY8WsRRDs_/?img_index=1

“I am so blessed & excited to announce that I have verbally committed to Louisiana State University (LSU) on a full athletic scholarship,” she wrote in a post on Instagram. “thank you Jesus for this wonderful blessing! thank you to my family, coaches, and teammates for helping me throughout this process. I also want to thank all the girls, coaches, and staff at LSU for everything”

Rivera is only 16 and has her sights set on a return to the Olympics when they’re hosted in Los Angeles in 2028. In the meantime, she will look to keep LSU among the ranks of elite gymnastics programs.

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Follow Tyler to continue the conversation on Twitter: @TylerNettuno

Flavor Flav gifted Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles a bronze clock in heartwarming moment at MTV VMAs

Can’t take this one away.

Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles had a heartbreaking end to her time in Paris this summer. The IOC stripped Chiles of her floor routine bronze medal over a scoring issue following a series of controversial decisions by the judges and gymnastics governing bodies.

Chiles took to the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday alongside Flavor Flav, and the Public Enemy rapper had a surprise for the athlete. Flav was extremely involved in the Summer Olympics, sponsoring the women’s and men’s water polo teams and attending several other events.

After the ruling came down that would take Chiles’ medal, Flav told the gymnast that he would give her one of his iconic bejeweled clocks. He came through, presenting Chiles with a bronze bedazzled medal replacement and telling her that he’d also cover the prize money ($15,000).

It was a wonderful moment.

 

Olympic gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik and his medal-winning pommel horse moves are joining Dancing With The Stars

The legend of Pommel Horse Guy lives on.

Someone had the brilliant idea of casting Stephen Nedoroscik in the new season of Dancing with the Stars, and I’m so excited.

To be honest, I’m more than excited. I’m THRILLED. Starting September 17, Stephen and several other dancers, yet to be named, will be moving and grooving all over the dance floor in front of judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough.

Per Good Morning America, Steve is also super pumped about joining the cast and will bring his expert Olympian moves to his routine. He says, “I want to do some flares. I want to bring some of that gymnastics — maybe a backflip or handstand. I want to have fun with it.”

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C–Ru0MC6z-/?igsh=MTc1c2dyYzl3ZHQ4aA==

Host George Stephanopoulos asked Steve how he would dance with his medals around his neck. “That’s a good question,” Steve said.” “Dangerously!”

If fans are wondering if he’ll dance the same way he competes — without his glasses — Steve explained that things might have to change.

“I’m scared they’ll fly off is the thing, but you know, maybe we could do a gadget — keep them on. Maybe a new pair of glasses. Match the theme, right?”

I LOVE THIS GUY. GIVE HIM ALL THE THINGS.

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Simone Biles recreated her head-turning Olympics meme on TikTok and it’s glorious

Recreating your own meme and somehow making it better is top-tier talent.

There’s humor, and then there’s Simone Biles‘ humor. Frankly, it’s unmatched, and the other girls don’t stand a chance.

Simone has been living her best life since her fantastic run during the 2024 Paris Olympics. She finally got to see other Olympic athletes compete, hung out with Elmo and even unexpectedly started a funny meme just for being herself.

The meme took over social media, with people finding all kinds of ways to use a moment where Simone turned her head and appeared startled by something to their advantage. Simone seemingly knows about her head-turning meme being a thing with the internet because she recreated it for a TikTok with Netflix, and it’s glorious.

@simonebilesowens

👀👀👀 @Netflix

♬ original sound – Simone Biles

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Jordan Chiles releases first statement since Olympic drama

Jordan Chiles opens up.

Jordan Chiles, who was one of the biggest hits in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris has released her first statement since the IOC stripped her of her bronze medal.

Chiles originally finished five, then after a review took home the bronze medal. Several reviews later, the latest is Chiles is likely to keep her third-place medal.

” I am overwhelmed by the love I have received over the past few days. I am also incredibly grateful to my family, teammates, coaches, fans, USAG and the USOPC for their unwavering support during this difficult time. While celebrating my Olympic accomplishments, I heard the devastating news that my bronze medal had been stripped away. I had confidence in the appeal brought by USAG, who gave conclusive evidence that my scored followed all the rules. This appeal was unsuccessful.”

Chiles went on to talk more about the events, and her reactions. Chiles made an announcement pretty soon after the Olympics she would be coming back for two more seasons at UCLA.

Jordan Chiles reacts to ‘devastating’ bronze medal decision and vows to keep fighting for justice

Jordan Chiles isn’t giving up hope of retaining her bronze medal just yet

Jordan Chiles isn’t giving up on her quest to retain the bronze medal she won at the Paris Olympics.

In what’s become an increasingly complex, confusing and bureaucratic case, Chiles had her floor routine medal stripped after Romania appealed the decision to allow Team USA to challenge Chiles’ score.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) concluded, without providing concrete evidence, that the Americans challenged the score four seconds after the one minute window to legally do so under International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) rules. Despite the fact the judges were simply correcting a score that they initially miscalculated, Romania will be awarding the bronze medal to Ana Maria Barbosu on Friday in Bucharest.

Chiles, who has been the victim of repeated hateful and racist attacks online, has mostly remained off social media while the arbitration system plays out. On Thursday, she released a statement calling the CAS ruling “devastating” and vowed to keep fighting for the medal.

“I believe that at the end of this journey, the people in control will do the right thing,” Chiles wrote.

The 23-year-old gymnast will return to UCLA to compete this collegiate season and is likely to contend for the 2028 Olympic team when the games come to Los Angeles.