US Olympic team shot putter Chase Jackson burst into tears when she arrived in Paris and saw that the uniform she was given was not her size.
The 30-year-old athlete shared her emotional rollercoaster experience during the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris via Instagram Story.
With her eyes welling with tears, she admitted that she had been overcome with sadness for the past “hour” because “they had nothing in the house.” [her] mate.’
The 5ft 10in track and field athlete later admitted she was not given the correct size due to a “logistical nightmare”.
However, her first video was met with anger and Chase’s fans took to social media to vent their anger.
US Olympic team shot putter Chase Jackson burst into tears when 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.’
Someone wrote: ‘These are some seriously hot bulls not wearing official opening ceremony attire for this beautiful woman.’
Someone else added: ‘Shameful!’
One user commented: ‘I feel terrible that this happened to her. As a plus size woman, I know how that feels. As an image consultant and wardrobe stylist, I can say that as a retail brand, I have found that Ralph Lauren sells clothes, especially dresses, that are very curvy and there are inclusive sizes to choose from… I’m not saying this was okay, I’m just providing some context.’
“Absolutely no excuse. I’m sure they had non-standard length pants that would have fit the super tall basketball players. Shame on them. I hope Chase has a great Olympics! I’m rooting for her,” said another.
“Epic fail,” wrote a fifth person.
Chase then explained in a follow-up post, in an attempt to calm angry fans, that they did indeed have her size, but that there had been an “administrative error” that had caused her requested size to be changed.
“When we arrived and saw that the measurements were wrong, it was obviously quite annoying, but my team here did a great job of resolving it,” she said.
The 30-year-old athlete took to an Instagram Story to talk about the emotional rollercoaster she experienced during the 2024 Paris Olympics
With her eyes welling with tears, she admitted that she had been overcome with sadness for the past “hour” because “they had nothing in the house.” [her] mate’
“The guys from USATF/Team USA/Nike really stepped up.”
She further said there was no reason to be angry with the companies, as she maintained it was just an accident.
“It turns out there was an administrative error in the system where all my sizes were being recorded incorrectly for all the different brands,” she continued.
‘Just to be clear, all brands have my size, it just wasn’t originally given to me but I have it now so it’s all good. There was no lockout or anything, just a super unfortunate logistical nightmare!’
The athlete explained that she became extremely emotional when she was given the wrong size, for a variety of reasons.
She confessed: ‘I think I got so upset because it’s happened before where I wasn’t involved and it’s painful. I’m so grateful that’s not the case here and that it was an honest mistake.
The athlete explained that she became extremely emotional when she was given the wrong size for various reasons
But fans immediately flooded social media to vent their frustrations
‘I am happy to talk to anyone about these issues, both in relation to this topic and the state of affairs in general, but I will only do that after I have finished my matches.’
The athlete previously admitted that she now knows that ‘strong is beautiful’, but that she has not always thought that way.
Chase told Today in the US: ‘I wasn’t the delicate dancer. It was hard. When people say something like, “You look strong as an ox!” it’s like, “I’m 12, can’t you say that?”‘
She told the outlet that she had been working hard on being feminine and had found new ways to embrace her feminine side.
She made it her mission to help young girls feel better about themselves.
Chase will compete in the women’s shot put qualifying round on Thursday.