What do you see when you hear Jordan Chiles? Probably a confident, carefree gymnast who is the biggest hype woman of the fellow gymnasts. Jordan herself also loves to see herself like that. “I may be competing for a spot too, but I want everyone to win,” she had told Teen Vogue in an interview. “I do my best gymnastics when I am out there relaxed and helping others feel supported.” But as confident as she looks, it came not before battling through adversities that even took her on the brink of quitting the sport.

As a young gymnast, she was body shamed. When she was just starting out in her gymnastics career, Chiles recalled being told she “had to ‘look a certain way.'” “I was traumatized when I was younger,” she said. “I was getting weighed. I was told I could only eat certain things.” And if that was not enough, there was racial discrimination to make matters worse. Ahead of the Paris Olympics she had recounted an incident that she experienced as a child.

“Some lady in the crowd basically was like, ‘She doesn’t deserve to be on the floor. She doesn’t even look like anybody else,’” she told Teen Vogue. “People were racially attacking me without me even really knowing.” All these took a toll on her to a great extent. “There was just times where my self-esteem got to a point where I didn’t want to be on the earth anymore,” Chiles told “The Squeeze” podcast. “I didn’t want anything to do with my life. I was like, ‘What’s the point if I’m always going to get told something?'” Little did she know that on the highest stage of the Olympics she would have a déjà vu when her hard-earned bronze medal in the floor exercise would be taken away.

“I was crying. And I felt like every single time I would accomplish something, something would be stripped away from me,” she had said, talking about the aftermath of the Olympic incident. Does that mean it is not the first time she has been stripped of a medal? Indeed. This came out of the closet in Jordan Chiles’ memoir: “I’m That Girl.” Recently, Chiles spilled the beans about it on the “Casuals with Katie Nolan” podcast. where she detailed the first time her medal was taken away.

It was during one of her first level 7 competitions in December 2009. “It was, yeah, I was really young when this happened. I, I was so excited to get up on that podium and accept my award and take it home with me. But that didn’t happen.”

It was gut-wrenching! The winners were supposed to travel to Florida- Disney Land to represent Region 2 in a meet. And Chiles, with 3 golds and 2 silvers, was locked in as one of the top performers. She even got a plaque that read she’d won the meet. But then, she noted her coach was nowhere around. Also, one of the judges then came and took away the plaque from an 8-year-old Chiles. And the reason behind it? One Coach X said she couldn’t go. And also, her dark skin! 

Jordan Chiles confessed in the podcast, “I got it stripped away from me because of my skin color. And I wasn’t very welcomed at this competition and it was in my eyes during that time I was young.”. It was a time when she admits she was so young that her brain was still developing. So when her mother told her later, it opened the floodgates. In fact, her parents got her an identical replica of the plaque for Christmas!

But today, the same incident proved to be a great learning lesson for her and it gives her additional boost to go that extra mile. “And I’m still here, standing till this day, the person that I am. And for it to kind of, to literally be a full circle moment just made me realize I was tested at the beginning of my career to see what my end goal is going to be.” 

Many know that Jordan Chiles suffered great disparity because of her skin color as a young gymnast. She recalls a time when her braids were cut off because her thick and poofy hair did not resemble the ‘elite gymnastics level.’ Judges even scored her differently for the same routine that the other gymnasts carried out. But Chiles has now decided to leave it all back for good – the childhood incident and the bronze medal controversy.

Jordan Chiles makes significant progress after the bronze setback

On March 4, in her interaction with Good Morning America, Jordan Chiles admitted she is doing way better than before. “I’m doing way better than I was when it first happened…. I can only do so much for myself is really focus on my mental.”

The gymnast is back in the NCAA tent with UCLA for the season and has progressed well. In fact, she has now won her fifth Big Ten Gymnast of the Week award this season. This comes in shortly after winning the all-around at the Big Four meet on March 2. This wasn’t it.

This year, the two-time Olympic medalist won her fourth all-around title, her third in a row. Moreover, Chiles has totaled 14 individual victories this year, the most on the UCLA team. Clearly, this shows that she has put all the mental baggage behind her and is progressing well. It’s great to see an athlete performing to her full potential.

The gymnast reclaimed her mojo, putting in death-defying leaps in the air. She must aim for further glory at the LA Olympics, right? What do you think of this? Let us know below!