Famous rapper and reality star Flava Flav presented a bronze bell to American team gymnast Jordan Chiles on Wednesday evening during the Video Music Awards.
The decision comes about a month after Chiles was stripped of her individual bronze medal at the Paris Olympics due to a Romanian appeal.
Chiles and Flava Flav were the co-presenters at the presentation of the first award of the evening.
After a short speech, Flava Flav quickly hung the bronze bell around Chile’s neck, to loud cheers from the crowd in the UBS Arena.
“I know they wanted to take your medal away from you,” Flava Flav said to the boos from the crowd. “I got something for you that they can’t take away from you.”
Jordan Chiles received a bronze bell from famed rapper Flava Flav at the VMAs on Wednesday
Chiles was stripped of her bronze medal five days after winning it on the floor exercise in Paris
On August 12, Flava Flav originally offered to make Chiles a bronze bell, which would become part of his usual outfits after she was stripped of her Olympic medal.
The controversy surrounding Chiles erupted when the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that she had been wrongly promoted from fifth to second place as a result of a United States investigation.
The court found that the American investigation started four seconds too late and that Chiles should therefore not have increased her score or touched the podium.
USA Gymnastics has appealed the decision. An official time-stamped statement shows the investigation was completed within the one-minute timeframe.
Five days after winning the medal, Chiles was stripped of his medal, while an appeal by Team USA was unsuccessful.
Many gymnastics fans have criticized the decision to strip Chiles of her medal over a minor matter, with the gymnast herself taking a break from social media due to the negative attention she received.
Chiles won a gold medal with the United States in the team competition in Paris and won silver in the same event at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.