The UCLA Bruins turned host this Saturday and showed the world how it’s done! The first conference home meet of the season, and they’re already beaming with the glow of a win. And once again, the team’s MVP, Jordan Chiles, had a huge part to play in it. It looks like, after her perfect 10 against Maryland led UCLA to their first Big Ten win last time, it’s turning into a tradition—Chiles has to be beyond reproach every time!

On January 25, Jordan Chiles stepped into Westwood for the first time since winning team gold at the Paris Olympics. Naturally, the ecstatic Pauley Pavillion crowd greeted her with deafening cheers, especially when the announcer called out her name during team introductions, seasoned with all those pyrotechnics! But the cheers broke through twice again that afternoon. Once when Jordan Chiles stuck her vault landing and the other the very second she finished her floor routine. And why would it not be?

As per UCLA Gymnastics’ latest update, the Bruins (197.200) have registered a win over Illinois (194.750) at home. And Jordan Chiles has hit it out of the park once again! With a 9.925 on the vault, she put up an exhibition performance, despite not having competed in the all-around this time. As a result, she emerged as the top scorer on the apparatus, tied with Chae Campbell.

But that isn’t it! With another 9.950 on the floor, Jordan Chiles not only emerged as the top scorer on the apparatus but steered UCLA to end the meet with a 197.200. In fact, thanks to this, the first confetti drop and “10″ chants on the floor at Pauley Pavilion of the season were for Jordan Chiles. Indeed, her score was a textbook routine to cap UCLA’s meet against Illinois. And it did give us major deja vu of the time-perfect 10 she scored last time.

Naturally, the minute Jordan Chiles finished both her routines, the UCLA head coach, Janelle McDonald, was seen cheering with joy and rushing to give the gymnast a high five. But there were also moments when the coach got visibly concerned. However, the latter did not have anything to do with Chiles, instead, with a delay that occurred during the meeting.

Jordan Chiles nailed it but the meet was plagued by scoring delays

Jordan Chiles and Team UCLA in general have been in prime form lately. But today, everyone present in the Pauley Pavilion to watch the UCLA vs. Illinois meet saw how slow the event was progressing in general. To an extent, UCLA got frustrated by the amount of time they’ve had to wait for scores to come in on beam. So much so that Janelle McDonald even took up a call with an official about it.

Well, it’s true that gymnasts had to wait patiently today, but as McDonald said in the post-meet conference uploaded by UCLA Athletics on YouTube, “The pace of the meet was a little slower today.” However, she even added, “But you never know what’s going to happen in a meet. You might get held for five minutes — that’s how it felt with Chae before beam.”

Even after the meet, Janelle McDonald clarified that the new score system in college gymnastics, where the judges will get feedback from a scoreboard, is not the reason why the delay happened today. She said, “Today, I actually just think that was more of individual judges were moving slow, not necessarily a result of the system or anything like that.” However, she called adapting to these delays a good growth for her team to have.

But none of that was enough to dull the sparkle that Jordan Chiles left on the mats today. She was focused and in the groove, despite battling a tough time again regarding her Paris bronze medal controversy. So what do you think of that? Let us know below!