Why is Jordan Chiles under attack for reaction to USA teammate Suni Lee’s success?

The USA Women’s Gymnastic team is used to being in the spotlight when the Olympics comes rolling around every four years. At the moment the team is making headlines for an incident that happened in the shadows of the qualifiers for the all-around final.

Chiles falls just short

Simone Biles, Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles were in the running for the two of Team USA’s allotted spots in the all-around final. After going through all but one of the events in the qualifiers it came down to the uneven bars to determine which two athletes would be moving on.

Biles rocked her routine on the uneven bars, qualifying for the final which meant there would be a head-to-head, winner move on scenario between Lee and Chiles. Lee went last knowing she had to score 14.800 or better to edge Chiles for the second spot in the final.

Lee earned a score of 14.866 earning her the second and last spot in the individual all-around final. Despite Chiles’ total score of 56.065, which just fell short of Lee, the former UCLA gymnast was disqualified from a crack at the final because of the Olympic rule that states no more than two athletes can represent a country in the individual final.

Chiles TikTok with Lee

One of the things that draws us to the Olympics is the emotion of sport. Athletes work for four years, and really most of their lives to get the opportunity to represent their country. Once they are there, they are constantly being watched by the thousands of cameras and media members covering the global event. Unfortunately for Chiles, she was caught on camera in the seconds following the heartbreaking moment that she realized that Lee, not her, earned Team USA’s second spot in the final.

Chiles and Lee did embrace, but there are people floating around the internet that have scrutinized Chiles for her “cold” reaction in the wake of seeing her dream of an individual all-around gold medal come to an end. The moment captured by cameras in Paris has sparked debate on whether her actions were acceptable in after being dealt a defeat by her teammate.

One of the biggest critics of Chiles was journalist and sports podcast personality Josina Anderson who said “Suni Lee deserved a better embrace from Jordan Chiles after edging Chiles for All-Around individuals. I understand it’s a tough pill to swallow after putting on dynamic performances herself.”

Fans of both Chiles and Lee replied to the post on X defending the actions of Chiles, “She quite literally made a happy dancing tik tok with Suni immediately after they left the arena and posted it, she congratulated her, they’re besties and I’m sure they aren’t over analyzing like this, Jo was upset and needed a moment, you’re acting as if she threw a tantrum” Said one fan. Another fan defended the face that Chiles even hugged Lee at all given the moment. “She hugged her despite her disappointment. That IS sportsmanship! Who are you to judge her embrace?”