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Jordan Chiles Shares Why She Let Mariska Hargitay's Daughter Wear Her Olympic Medal
"I felt like in that moment, it was really cool just to give her that opportunity to feel seen,” Chiles told NBC's TODAY about the heartwarming moment.
When Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay met gold medal-winning Olympic gymnasts Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles, Lee was overcome in the actress' presence. Chiles had an emotional reaction for a different reason: she saw herself in Hargitay's daughter, Amaya. Their picture together is even more meaningful than it appeared.
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Why Jordan Chiles wanted to honor Amaya with a gold medal pic
The two elite athletes were happy to pose for a picture with Amaya, who went with her mother to visit with a handful of athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Chiles made a point of putting her gold medal around Amaya's neck for a beautiful reason: she relates to her as a woman of color who stands out from her family. (Check out the touching photos here.)
“I’ve been in her position before, when it comes to your beauty, the diversity, everything like that,” Chiles told TODAY. “Obviously, for you to walk around and, you know, everybody’s going to ask questions like, ‘Is this really your mom?’ You know, I’ve been there once before ... and so I felt like in that moment, it was really cool just to give her that opportunity to feel seen.”
Hargitay and her husband, Peter Hermann, who are both white, adopted Amaya, who is Black, as an infant. Chiles is her parents' biological daughter, but has spoken about strangers not immediately believing that her mother, who is Latina, and father, who is Black, are her relatives. "I’ve been told that my mom wasn’t my mom. I’ve gotten told that I wasn’t Black," Chiles told Teen Vogue, adding that she was always aware of her skin color in the mostly-white world of gymnastics.
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Jordan Chiles saw Amaya's beauty
Chiles added to TODAY that her reaction to meeting Amaya was an immediate, “You know what, she’s gorgeous.”
“It caught my eye,” she added. “It wasn’t just like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m just doing that for publicity.’ No, it caught my eye and I felt like the beauty is what needs to be seen, and I’m happy I had that moment with her.”
Of course, Hargitay was so happy and grateful to have her daughter meet these incredible role models. "I have no words 🥹" the actor commented on a picture of Amaya, Lee and Chiles together. In her own post, Hargitay wrote, "Thank you @sunisalee and @jordanchiles for shining your bright, beautiful, Olympian light on my sweetest girl. A mountaintop moment."
