‘Pure grit.’ Jordan Chiles is making a run at a second Olympics, this time on her terms

FORT WORTH, Texas — Jordan Chiles doesn’t have to put himself through this. She knows it. The proof is tattooed on her arm. It’s in her trophy room. It’s littered across her social media feeds, which are littered with the kind of partnerships and experiences she once never thought possible.

Yet here she is, three years removed from the summer of 2021 – when Chiles put together perhaps the best gymnastics of her life (so far, anyway) to make the Olympic team and left Tokyo with a silver medal, while on a scholarship awaited her at UCLA and more than a taste of fame – and pursuit of another opportunity on her sport’s biggest stage.

Chiles will take the floor at the US Championships on Friday evening, looking to build momentum after a promising third-place finish at the US Classic two weeks ago, which provided a necessary reminder that she can still be, as the 23-year-old likes to say : “that girl.”

It seemed unlikely that Chiles would reach this moment shortly after Chiles left Japan. She told her parents that she was probably done with elite gymnastics. She immediately immersed herself in student life and everything it had to offer.

There was something about the team atmosphere that appealed to her, something about the freedom of self-expression afforded by the thriving college gymnastics scene, that helped her find joy.

Still, something kept nagging at her. They weren’t the doubters. She believes they were silenced as soon as Chiles heard her name called at the end of the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials.

It was something different.

Despite all the work she put in over the years, Chiles never felt like she was at her best. Certainly not in Tokyo, when a lackluster performance in qualifying prevented her from reaching the final of the event. And while she cherishes that Olympic silver medal – especially given the circumstances – and the team gold she helped secure at the 2022 world championships, there remained a sense of unfinished business.

“I’ve never been 100% in my life,” Chiles said.

To be honest, she still isn’t. Gymnastics simply doesn’t allow it. She tripped during a national training camp in late January and twisted her shoulder, symbolic of a difficult period when the aches and pains that are as much a part of the sport as chalk and tights threatened to derail her chances of becoming the five-woman. The US Olympic team before they even started.

Chiles responded with what her mother Gina called “pure guts, pure fight.”

“She said, ‘I know what I want to do, I know what I need to accomplish, I know I have the right people to help me get there,’” Gina Chiles said.

And perhaps just as importantly, she has memories of the summer of 2021, when Chiles broke away from a crowded field by competing with the kind of consistency that had long been elusive.

Maybe that’s why what happened at the US Classic felt a bit like deja vu, as all the injuries gnawing at her and all the lingering self-doubt slipped away and the “angry Jordan” who always seems to push her past the limits she stilt. back for himself.

“She seemed to be fully focused and all in,” said Chellsie Memmel, technical director of USA Gymnastics’ elite women’s program.

Call it the byproduct of a little selective memory. There are times when Chiles admits she catches a glimpse of the rings tattooed on her right arm, or she comes across that silver medal hanging prominently in her house and remembers, “I’m like, I’m an Olympian? Oh yeah. Thank you for reminding me.’”

In a way, it’s almost on purpose. The positive vibe that Chiles carries with her wherever she goes — yes, that was Chiles, girlfriend Simone Biles and other members of the World Champions Center dancing around Dickies Arena during practice on Wednesday — there’s also something steely underneath.

She needs to forget what she’s done – at least for the moment – ​​so she can focus on what’s next, both inside and outside the gym.

Her experience at UCLA as a student and as a competitor led to growth and maturation, which has helped put things into perspective.

“Gymnastics does not define who I am,” she said. “Gymnastics is a part of me.”

Just not her whole life, like earlier in her career, earlier in her life. It’s a key distinction that has helped her approach this relaunch on her own terms.

Chiles wants to do things her way. The same athlete who felt all eyes on her as the only Black gymnast in the program she competed in while growing up in Vancouver, Washington, has made it a point to embrace her culture.

She went viral and earned perfect A’s during her sophomore year at UCLA in 2023 with a floor routine to ’90s hip-hop songs, but when she tried to incorporate it into her return to the elite last summer, she was told she couldn’t had to change. because she was told it wasn’t ‘US-like’.

“Do I wish I could have that routine? Yes, 100%,” she said. “I tried to fight for it, but it was still a no.”

While she emphasizes that she would like to see elite-level judging – not just in the US, but internationally – become more inclusive, she has made her peace with the process. The floor routine she’s using this season is inspired by pop artist Beyonce and straddles the line between what she calls “college-fun Jordan (and) elite Jordan.”

Maybe it will be good enough to help Chiles hear her name again at the end of the Olympic Trials. Maybe not. She has put herself in a position to join the fight. That’s all that matters.

“Whether I make it, I don’t make it, I know that at the end of the journey, at the end of this chapter, I will be very proud of myself because I will not regret anything. I either did it or I didn’t do it,” she said. “So that’s where peace comes in.”

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Summer Olympics AP: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games