Olympics Team USA shot putter Chase Jackson broke down in tears after she arrived in Paris and saw that the uniform she was given was not her size.
The 30-year-old athlete took to an Instagram Story to speak out about the rollercoaster of emotions she had experienced while at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
As tears filled her eyes, she admitted that she had been flooded with sadness for the past ‘hour’ because ‘they didn’t have anything in [her] size.’
The five-foot-10-inch tall track and field star later clarified that she didn’t get the right size because of a ‘logistical nightmare.’
However her initial video was met with anger and Chase’s fans rushed to social media to express their fury.
Olympics Team USA shot putter Chase Jackson broke down in tears after she arrived in Paris and saw that the uniform she was given was not her size
In her first post, the 30-year-old wrote, ‘When you spend your first hour in Paris crying because they didn’t give you anything in your size.’
One person wrote: ‘This is some red hot bulls*** not having official opening ceremony attire for this beautiful woman.’
Someone else added: ‘Shameful!’
One user commented: ‘I hate that this happened for her. As a plus-sized woman, I know how that feels. As an Image Consultant & wardrobe stylist, I will say that as far a retail brands go, I have found Ralph Lauren to carry clothes, especially dresses, that are quite accommodating for curvy woman and have had inclusive sizes to choose from… Not saying this was ok, just adding some context.’
‘Absolutely no excuse. I’m sure that they had “non-standard” length pants to fit the super tall basketball players. They should be embarrassed. I hope that Chase has an amazing Olympics! Rooting for her,’ another said.
‘Epic failure,’ a fifth person wrote.
Chase then explained in a follow-up post, in an attempt to calm down furious fans, that they did carry her size, but there had been ‘an admin error’ that changed her requested size.
‘Arriving and seeing wrong sizes was obviously pretty upsetting but my team here have been amazing in fixing it,’ she said.
The 30-year-old athlete took to an Instagram Story to speak out about the rollercoaster of emotions she had experienced while at the 2024 Paris Olympics
As tears filled her eyes, she admitted that she had been flooded with sadness for the past ‘hour’ because ‘they didn’t have anything in [her] size’
‘The USATF/Team USA/Nike guys really came through.’
She went on to say that there was no need to be angry with the companies as she insisted it was just a mishap.
‘Turns out there was an admin error on the system that recorded all of my sizes incorrectly for all of the different brands,’ she continued.
‘Just to be clear, all brands do have my size, it just wasn’t given to me originally but I have it now, so it’s all good. There was no exclusion or anything just a super unfortunate logistical nightmare!’
The sports star explained that she was extremely emotional when she was handed the wrong size because of a variety of reasons.
She confessed: ‘I think I got so upset because it’s happened before where I’ve not been included and it’s hurtful. I’m so thankful that’s not the case here and it was an honest mistake.
The sports star explained that she was extremely emotional when she was handed the wrong size because of a variety of reasons
But fans immediately flooded social media to express their frustrations
‘I’m happy to talk to anyone about these kinds of issues either in relation to this or the state of it in general, but it’ll be after I’ve done my competing.’
The athlete has previously revealed that while she now knows ‘strong is beautiful,’ she didn’t always think that way.
Chase told USA Today: ‘I was not the delicate dancer. It was hard. When people say something like, “You look strong as an ox!” It’s like, “I’m 12, can you not say that?”‘
She told the outlet that she worked hard to focus on letting herself be girly, and she had found new ways to embrace her feminine side.
She then made it her mission to help young girls feel more comfortable in their skin.
Chase is set to compete in the qualifying round of women’s shot put on Thursday.