Gymnastics Community Offers Prayers for Jordan Chiles as Olympic Medalist Opens Up About Early Career Struggles in Debut Book

Back in 2018, Jordan Chiles sat in her room, crying, surrounded by medals and trophies that she had accumulated since she started competing as a 7-year-old. As her mother walked into her room, she asked her to take all of them away as she wondered: Is this enough? Because it felt enough. That year, she was ditched from the senior national team and the world team despite a second place in the all-around at the national championships the year before, and placing third in the 2018 World Cup. Her thoughts?

“I lost the love of the sport. I felt like I didn’t belong; I felt like gymnastics didn’t want me. I didn’t want to do anything. I was like, ‘I’m done with this sport. I’m over it.’”

But this is not where the problem stemmed from. As a child, an ADHD-ridden Chiles had a lot of energy. One way she found to sink this energy was gymnastics. “The sport saved me” she says today. But at that very age, she realized that she was different. The gymnastics stars that people knew then were petite-framed and…white. But she, she was different. Something she realized as a 7-year-old competing in a level 4 meet as she recently recalled, “The first time that I finally realized that I wasn’t going to be able to be a typical athlete was the judging. I’m literally doing almost the exact same thing as any other person, but why am I not getting the same scores?”

Her conclusion? Her “skin color.”

Today she accepts being different as she says, “It’s like, God created this body for a reason, so I’m going to use it as much as I can.” But before, while proving the world why she belonged, she was also trying to battle a much closer enemy. Her coach – Coach X – per her debut book “I’m That Girl: Living the Power of My Dreams” which was released a few days ago. 

Opening up about her struggles in her memoir, Chiles explained how the coach criticized her at every point. Coach X allegedly called out Chiles for her skills, her eating habits, and even her body! Through her recent exclusive, People recalled, “For years, however, Chiles says she was forced to contend with Coach X’s attacks on her race, her body (Coach X often called Chiles “fat,” among other things), her eating habits, her whereabouts, her performance.” 

After constant criticism and getting body-shamed, Chiles was handed an 800-calorie diet. A diet that seemingly would help her become an Olympian! Needless to say, Chiles’ relationship with food got worse. Hiding from her coach, she would binge on unhealthy snacks. And the guilt that followed afterward would only add to her eating more.

Narrating her struggles in her memoir, Jordan Chiles stated, “My sport saved my life. And I had really, really bad ADHD when I was younger, and gymnastics helped me calm down. I fell in love with flipping around and doing crazy things. I always had a very spontaneous mind.” Full of energy? Chiles’ teachers would agree who were afraid for her if she would even pass school.

Having struggled from s*icidal thoughts throughout her early career, Chiles confessed in her memoir, “Every woman goes through a lot, whether it’s mental health or physical struggles, and understanding our trauma can make us stronger.” Thankfully, Chiles was lucky enough to cross paths with Simone Biles who brought her out of the shadows by offering training in the World Championship Center (WCC) under Cecile and Laurent Landi who understood her in ways that were unknown to her, opening the doors to a whole new world for a healthy coach-trainee relationship and yes, success.

Despite going through so much, she never flinched and went on to become a world-champion athlete. Naturally, when the fans heard the same, they stood beside her with all their hearts. 

Fans shower love and support on Jordan Chiles

As soon as the news got trending, fans flocked to the comment section to share their two cents. “This is incredibly sad. I’m so glad things turned around for her! Just awful she had to relive the racist attacks over the summer (and I assume still).” Throughout her life, Chiles has not been a stranger to comments on her skin color. Things only got worse as she rose to prominence, and yes of course, the Bronze medal saga. While many gymnastics followers were on the other side of the discussion, many stood with Chiles.

Sharing their personal take, the Reddit user wrote, “Okay, I’m reading about her coach being drunk at national team camp and I just… can’t wrap my head around it. I totally get the kids not being able to tell but nothing could convince me the adults at camp couldn’t tell, especially with her erratic behavior.” And the redditors feelings are totally valid as who would allow an intoxicated person near children.

The redditor continued, “Most adults have been drunk or been around someone who is drunk, you can tell. I do not understand how that wasn’t grounds for USAG to suspend her until she’d completed some kind of treatment program AND tell anyone attending a national camp with her that they would need to attend with a different coach.”

The gymnastics enthusiast further added, “AND THIS WAS AFTER THE NASSAR SCANDAL?! Just playing loosey goosey with athlete safety yet again.” The commenter expressed outrage over claims that the coach was intoxicated at a national team camp, questioning how USA Gymnastics allowed this despite clear signs of misconduct. They argue that such behavior should have led to immediate suspension and stricter oversight to ensure athlete safety.

The mention of “the 2017 Worlds team” likely points to her omission from that squad, which some fans believe was unfair. Their opinion read, “Omg, the tea on the 2017 World Cup team is wild. I didn’t know Valeri screwed her over like that but good on her for calling it out!”. The reference to “Valeri” suggests criticism of former national team coordinator Valeri Liukin, implying he played a role in her exclusion.

Talking about the 2017s, another fan commented, “Jordan is one of the few “prodigy” level juniors that actually ended up achieving the success that people thought she was capable of in the end. People had been talking about her since early in her junior days, but kudos to her, because back in 2017-18 – things looked much different. That change to WCC changed everything…” Back in those days, Chiles had lost all hope to compete on a higher level. She, in fact, completely stopped her training after her ditching and turned her focus completely to studies. Thankfully, she had a friend in Simone Biles ,who she met at one of the events, and Biles’ offer for training together at WCC did indeed turn things around for Chiles.

Fans are acknowledging Chile’s courage in speaking out about past injustices in the sport. “It seems relevant to general discussions about racism in the sport at the time and the kinds of attitudes Jordan would have encountered,” added another social media user, highlighting the challenges Jordan Chiles faced under her former coach.

This aligns with broader discussions about biases in the sport, including how athletes from diverse backgrounds may experience additional scrutiny. Thus, it is evident that Jordan Chiles has been through a lot. Now, it will be interesting to see how far she can take her fame quotient in the upcoming days.