U.S. Olympic shot putter Chase Jackson broke down in tears after arriving in Paris and finding that the uniform she had been given was not her size.
The 30-year-old athlete took to Instagram to talk about the rollercoaster of emotions she experienced during the Paris 2024 Olympics.
With tears in her eyes, she admitted that sadness had overcome her during the last “hour” because “they didn’t have anything in her size.”
The 6’2″ track star later clarified that she failed to get the right size due to a “logistical nightmare.”
However, her initial video was met with anger and Chase fans took to social media to express their fury.
U.S. Olympic shot putter Chase Jackson broke down in tears after arriving in Paris and finding that the uniform she had been 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 red-hot nonsense, not having the official opening ceremony outfit for this beautiful woman.’
Someone else added: ‘Embarrassing!’
One user commented: “I hate that this happened to you. As a plus-size woman, I know how you feel. As an image consultant and wardrobe stylist, I will say that as far as retail brands go, I have found that Ralph Lauren offers clothing, especially dresses, that fit curvy women quite well and have inclusive sizes to choose from… I’m not saying this is okay, just adding some context.”
“There’s no excuse at all. I’m sure they had “non-standard” length pants to fit such tall basketball players. They should be ashamed. I hope Chase has an amazing Olympics! I support her,” said another.
“An epic fail,” wrote a fifth person.
Chase then explained in a follow-up post, in an attempt to calm angry fans, that they had her size, but there had been an “admin error” that changed the requested size.
“Coming in and seeing incorrect sizes was obviously pretty annoying, but my team here has been amazing at sorting it out,” she said.
The 30-year-old athlete took to Instagram to talk about the rollercoaster of emotions she experienced during the Paris 2024 Olympics.
With tears in her eyes, she admitted that sadness had overcome her during the last “hour” because “they didn’t have anything in her size.”
‘The USATF/Team USA/Nike guys really did their best.’
She went on to say that there was no need to be angry with the companies as she insisted that it was just an accident.
“It turns out there was a clerical error in the system that incorrectly recorded all my sizes for all the different brands,” she continued.
‘Just to be clear, all the brands have my size, but they didn’t originally give it to me, but now I have it, so it’s all good. There were no exclusions or anything, it was just a very unfortunate logistical nightmare!’
The sports star explained that she felt extremely emotional when she was given the wrong size due to various reasons.
She confessed: ‘I think I got really angry because it’s happened before, where I haven’t been included, and it’s hurtful. I’m really grateful that’s not the case here and that it was an honest mistake.
The sports star explained that she felt very emotional when she was given the wrong size for various reasons.
But fans immediately flooded social media to vent their frustrations.
“I’m willing to talk to anyone about these kinds of issues, whether it’s in relation to this or the state of affairs in general, but it will be after I’ve finished my competition.”
The athlete has previously revealed that while she now knows that “strength is beautiful,” she didn’t always think that way.
Chase said USA Today: ‘I wasn’t a delicate dancer. It was difficult. When people say something like, “You look strong as an ox!”, it’s like, “I’m 12 years old, can you not say that?”
She told the outlet that she worked hard to focus on allowing herself to be feminine and that she had found new ways to embrace her feminine side.
She then made it her mission to help young women feel more comfortable with themselves.
Chase will compete in the women’s shot put qualifying round on Thursday.