Sure, Jordan Chiles’s last name rhymes with Biles, but the 20-year-old is holding her own in women’s gymnastics. “I need to be able to go out there and just be Jordan and not try to be somebody that – I don’t know, like the next Gabby [Douglas], the next Simone,” the senior national team member told USA Today. “I want to be the next Jordan. I’m myself.” Prior to that interview, she had won the all-around at the Winter Cup in February and came in second overall at the GK US Classic behind Biles. Following the interview, she claimed the national all-around bronze medal on June 6.
Chiles’s journey toward peak performance launched when she moved training gyms from her hometown of Vancouver, WA, to World Champions Centre (WCC) in Spring, TX, where Biles also trains. Making the switch in June 2019 helped instil confidence and love for the sport that she had lost. “The environment in this place is so strong and giving and everything. Like you just feel welcomed,” Chiles told USA Today of the gym and coaches Laurent Landi and Cecile Canqueteau-Landi. “. . . Like, this is where I’m supposed to be.”
Chiles was the team, vault, and floor champion at the 2018 Pacific Rim Championships and also placed second in the all-around at the 2017 US Gymnastics Championships. She is committed to UCLA, though she has deferred in order to chase her Olympic dream. Her strong scores on all four events give her a chance to make that team – plus, the top two all-rounders at Olympic trials automatically get a spot. She told ESPN that she believes she can make the four-person Olympic squad.
“When I think about everything that I’ve been through, and now where I am now, I feel so confident and I enjoy doing what I love,” Chiles said. “When I was younger I felt like I needed to prove something to the world but now, I’m just doing it for myself.”
Gymnastics became Chiles’s whole universe shortly after she was introduced to the sport with natural talent around age seven, and we can’t wait to see what more is in store for her. Ahead, check out six facts about Chiles that you might not know.
