Simone Biles will forever have longtime friend and teammate Jordan Chiles' back.
After Chiles, 24, was stripped of her bronze medal on the floor exercise at the 2024 Olympics, Biles came to her teammate's defense.
On Sunday, August 11, Biles, 27, reposted the International Olympic Committee's controversial ruling and quote-tweeted Australian gymnast Heath Thorpe's heated take on the IOC's decision.
"Why are the athletes the ones to suffer due to a judging error/oversight? Where is the accountability? Where is the 'athlete wellbeing' that is spoken of so often?" Thorpe asked in his X post.
Both Chiles and Biles were left in awe — and celebrated accordingly — last week after Chiles was declared the bronze medal winner after her coaches disputed the judges' initial ruling that deducted 1/10th of a point based on a split leap from the athlete. (Romania's Ana Barbosu initially won the bronze at the end of the competition, lost it after the judges' second ruling and once again gained it back after the medal was stripped from Chiles.)
In another twist in the controversial saga, USA Gymnastics said on Sunday that there is video proof of Chiles' coach, Cecile Landi, submitting an inquiry about Chiles' score 47 seconds after Chiles' routine — meaning Landi was within the time frame of the one minute deadline she had to do so.
Biles, for her part, has publicly defended her teammates throughout the Paris Olympics — particularly in response to 2020 Tokyo Games teammate MyKayla Skinner's comments questioning the "talent" and "work ethic" of the 2024 women's gymnastics team. (After winning the team all-around gold, Biles posted an Instagram carousel of their win with the caption, "Lack of talent, lazy, olympic champions ❤️🥇🇺🇸.")
"For somebody to stand up, I know it meant a lot for [my teammates]," Biles told People last week, adding that it "just felt like it was right in that moment to stand up for them, because they're so young and they haven't fully stood in their power yet."
"It's important because you have to teach them to use their voices," the 11-time Olympic medalist noted. "And if not, you're a voice for the voiceless, which is okay."
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