In this case, believe the hype.
Rapper Flavor Flav and U.S. Olympian Jordan Childs shared a sweet moment at the 2024 VMAs in New York City on Wednesday.
The pair opened the MTV Video Music Awards as the first presenters of the night, and while onstage, Flav addressed Chile's decision to strip them of their bronze medal at the 2024 Olympics.
The 65-year-old “Can't Truss It” artist surprised the 23-year-old gymnast by gifting her a bronze necklace instead of a watch.
“I know they're going to try to take your medal away, but what I've given you is something they can't take away from you,” Flav, who is sponsoring the U.S. women's water polo team at the 2024 Paris Olympics, said before presenting her with a rose gold ring.
“That's why I wanted this to be an Olympic moment, Jordan,” he continued. “And guess what else? I got your prize money. I got it for you. I wanted to surprise you with it.” (All Olympians also take home a prize money.)
Flav added, “Jordan, you did what you set out to do. Congratulations. You deserve it all.”
“Wow, I don't know what to say,” Chiles responded. “Thank you so much.”
Flav's kind act comes as the Olympic athlete continues to fight for her bronze medal. Last month, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee announced it would appeal the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling that led to her being stripped of her bronze medal in the floor exercise.
At the Games, the CAS retroactively demoted Chiles from third to fifth in the event because an investigation that improved Chiles' score by 0.1 points was conducted four seconds after the time limit for such an investigation.
Both the International Gymnastics Federation and the International Olympic Committee have agreed to abide by the CAS decision, which means Romanian gymnast Ana Barbos will win the bronze medal, with Barbos' teammate Sabrina Maneca Boina coming in fourth.
“We firmly believe Jordan was rightfully awarded the bronze medal. There were significant errors in both the initial scoring by the International Gymnastics Federation and the subsequent CAS appeals process that must be addressed,” the USOPC said in a statement at the time. “The first error occurred during the FIG scoring and the second error occurred during the CAS appeals process. The USOPC was not given sufficient time or notice to effectively challenge the decision. As a result, we were not given proper representation or the opportunity to comprehensively argue our case.”
Back in August, Flav explained why he created his own watch chain for Chills.
“One of the best feelings an athlete can have is when they're winning or they win something,” he said. USA Today “I know for sure how devastating that feeling is for Jordan Childs and any other athlete who's gone through that.”
“The bronze watch we made for Jordan Chiles is a gift of love. A gift of gratitude,” he added. “A gift that says, 'We recognize you for who you are. We value you for who you are.' She gave everything she had for her medal. She earned it, and she deserved it.”
Public Enemy Icons First tweeted After Childs' scandal broke, Jordan wore an embellished necklace and wrote, “America will fight the powers that be, in the meantime, I will always be a man of my word. @ChilesJordan.”
The player's mother, Gina Childs, responded: “Thank you. I'm so happy. As you can imagine, she's not on social media right now. I will share this with her.”
Chiles' teammate and fellow Olympian Simone Biles addressed the controversy via Instagram.
“Sending you so much love, Jordan,” she wrote. “Stay strong, Olympic champion! We love you!”
Teammate Suni Lee also posted on her Instagram Story, “All this talk about the athletes and what about the judges?? Totally unacceptable. This is awful. Worried about Jordan. Joe I'm always on your side. You have lots of bouquets of flowers from me. You will always be an Olympic champion.”
On Wednesday, Mr Childs acknowledged he felt like he had been “left in the dark” amid the turmoil.
“The biggest thing that was taken from me was the recognition of who I was as a person — not just in sport, but as a person,” Childs said at Forbes' Power Women Summit. “To me, everything that happened wasn't about the medals, it was about the color of my skin. It was about the fact that there were so many things that went into getting to this status as an athlete, and I felt like that was all taken away from me.”
“I feel that way now,” she continued, “but it was really hard for me to really accept it at first because I was so hurt inside.”
Whatever happened, Chiles walked away with his head held high.
“I made history and I will continue to make history. And what I did right was I followed the rules. My coach followed the rules. We did everything completely, completely right,” she concluded. “I will continue to shine because a star never gets dimmed and I just keep moving forward.”
