"Toughest person I've ever met in a million years" - Jordan Chiles explains how her grandfather is helping overcome the loss of Olympic bronze medal

Jordan Chiles called her grandfather the toughest person and touched on how his valuable teachings are helping her deal with the bronze medal heartbreak. Chiles was part of the 'Golden Girls' team at the 2024 Paris Olympics, a 'redemption tour' for the US women's gymnastics squad.

The 23-year-old qualified for the Paris Games, where she won the team gold alongside Simone Biles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera. She also competed in the floor exercise and earned 13.766 to finish fifth. However, Jordan Chiles' team's appeal to FIG earned her the bronze podium with a 0.10 increase in her score.

The sudden score degradation moved Romanian Ana Barbosu out of the podium, prompting the Romanian Gymnastics Federation to urge CAS to overturn the score since the appeal was submitted past the deadline. Chiles was then asked to forfeit the bronze.

In her first TV appearance (Today Show) since that day, the Olympian embraced her truth and pledged to lift herself back up from the heartbreak, something her grandfather had taught her. Chiles recalled his grandfather's teachings and called him the 'toughest person.'

"He just tell me everything happens for a reason. 'There's reasons on why you're the person you are'. My grandpa has been in tough situations. And he's the toughest person I've ever met in a million years. And he has been able to overcome them. So how I see it in everything is I'll be able to overcome this. And I'll be able to look back and say, you know what, that was just a portion of my story. But it's the truth. And that's why I'm here today is to tell my truth," she told host Hoda Kotb (at 7:30).

She also tattooed one of her grandfather's valuable lines:

"It's where you are, I have been, where I am, you will be. "

Jordan Chiles debuted at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, winning the team silver after US women's gymnastics front-runner Simone Biles withdrew midway through the event.

Jordan Chiles: "It's hard to tell yourself everything is going to be fine when we didn't do anything wrong"

Chiles amid podium training at the 2024 Paris Olympics - (Source: Getty)

In her interview with Today, Jordan Chiles talked about her inability to accept the setback since she was not at fault for anything that followed her floor performance.

"It's hard to tell yourself everything is going to be fine when we literally didn’t do anything wrong. Everything was in the time that it needed to be. For them to come back and say it was four seconds too late when we have proof … I can only control what my truth is and I know that we were right."

Amid the ordeal, the World medalist received support from her Olympic teammates, Simone Biles and Suni Lee, and also WCC coach, Cecile Landi.