In this case, believe the hype.
Rapper Flavor Flav and US Olympian Jordan Chiles had a sweet moment together at the 2024 VMAs in New York on Wednesday.
The two kicked off the MTV Video Music Awards as the show's first presenters. While on stage, Flav acknowledged the incident of Chile being stripped of its 2024 Olympic bronze medal.
The 65-year-old “Can't Truss It” artist surprised the 23-year-old gymnast with a bronze watch necklace instead.
“I know they’re trying to take your medal away from you, but you know — I got you something they can’t take away from you,” Flav, who sponsored the U.S. women’s water polo team at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, told her before handing her the rose-gold glitter.
“So I wanted to turn this into an Olympic moment, Jordan,” he added. “And guess what? I even got your prize money. I bought that for you. I just wanted to surprise you with it.” (All Olympic athletes take home a monetary award.)
Flav said, “Jordan, you did your job. Congratulations. You deserve everything.”
“Wow, I don’t know what to say,” Chiles replied. “Thank you so much.”
Flav's sweet gesture comes at a time when the Olympian is fighting for her bronze medal. Last month, the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee announced that they would appeal the Court of Arbitration for Sport's decision that resulted in her being stripped of her bronze medal in floor exercise.
At the Games, CAS demoted Chiles from third place to fifth in the event, citing that the check which improved his score by a tenth of a point was conducted four seconds after the time limit for checking.
The International Gymnastics Federation and the International Olympic Committee both agreed that they would abide by CAS's decision, meaning that Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu would win the bronze medal, and Barbosu's teammate Sabrina Maneaca-Voina would finish fourth.
“We strongly believe Jordan rightfully won the bronze medal, and there were serious errors in both the initial scoring by the International Gymnastics Federation and the subsequent CAS appeal process that need to be addressed,” the USOPC said in a statement at the time. “The initial error occurred in the scoring by FIG, and a second error occurred during the CAS appeal process, where the USOPC was not given adequate time or notice to effectively challenge the decision. As a result, we were not properly represented or given the opportunity to comprehensively present our case.”
In August, Flav explained why he made his own watch chain for Chills.
“One of the best feelings for an athlete is when they're winning or when they win something, you know me,” he said. USA Today at the time. “I'm sure for Jordan Chiles and any other athlete that's ever gone through this … that feeling can be so devastating.”
“The bronze clock I made for Jordan Chiles is a gift of love. It's a gift of appreciation,” he said. “It's a gift of 'we know who you are, we appreciate you.' That girl went out there and did her best for that medal. She deserved to win that medal.”
public enemy icon First to tweet The necklace, decorated after news of the Chiles scandal broke, read, “The US is going to fight those in power, in the meantime, I will always be a man of my word @ChilesJordan.”
The athlete's mom, Gina Chiles, responded, “Thank you. Thank you so much. As you can imagine, she's not on social media right now. I'll share this with her.”
Chiles' teammate and Olympian Simone Biles responded to the controversy via Instagram.
She wrote, “Sending you so much love, Jordan. Keep up the good work Olympic champion! We love you!”
Fellow athlete Suni Lee also posted on her Instagram Stories, “All this talk about the athletes, what about the judges?? Totally unacceptable. This is horrible and I'm so sad for Jordan. I'm always with you Joe. You have all my flowers and you will always be an Olympic champion.”
On Wednesday, Chiles admitted he felt like he was “left in the dark” over the incident.
“The biggest thing that was taken away from me was who I was, not just my sport, but who I am as a person,” Chiles said at the Forbes Power Women Summit. “For me, what happened wasn't about the medal, it was about the color of my skin. It was about the fact that there were things that led me to this position of being an athlete, and I felt like everything was taken away.”
She added, “I can feel it now, but at first it was really hard to accept because I was so heartbroken.”
No matter what, Chiles walked away with her head held high.
“I made history and I will always make history, and what I did right was that I followed the rules. My coach followed the rules. We did everything that was absolutely right,” she concluded. “I will keep shining, because the star is never going to fade and I will always keep moving forward.”
