The world kept moving, but for Jordan Chiles, time stood still. A single moment shattered everything she had built, and no one could hear the sound of her heart breaking. Maybe they didn’t need to. Maybe if they had looked close enough—past the sunglasses shielding her eyes, past the silence filling the air of that Uber ride—they would have seen the weight crushing her soul. After all, to get so close to victory and then lose it all is a pain on a different level, but she refused to be an embodiment of her losses. She is greater than that. 

The Oregon native had just lost an Olympic bronze medal. Not on the floor. Not in the arena. But in the cold, merciless hands of a judgment that took what she had fought for in the French capital. Just one decision from CAS, and it was gone. The gymnast’s family was there in Uber, seated beside her, when the heartbreaking news reached her. Her family, the ones who had always lifted her, failed to reach the part of her that had crumbled. Inside that Uber, while the 23-year-old felt everything around her had ceased to exist, she emerged stronger than her adversities. 

Jordan Chiles is not just a moment of heartbreak. Also, she is not just the silence behind the tears. Fast forward to the 2025 college gymnastics season, and she is back in UCLA’s color—maybe with scars, but stronger than ever. Now, she flips, she soars, and she lands with a fire that refuses to be extinguished. They took away a medal, but they couldn’t take her spirit. The floor still belongs to her, and this time, she’s writing a new ending. But what is her secret to standing up, disregarding her scars?

Jordan Chiles finds light in the dark pit 

 What makes Jordan Chiles ‘that girl’? How does she handle people’s expectations? Or shine bright during the darkest times? In her appearance on the 14th episode of Casuals With Katie Nolan, the star gymnast got candid about everything that sets her apart from the rest. Jordan said, “I still had the courage and the resilience to put myself in that position.” How does this courage and resilience come to her?

Life has seldom been a breezy walk for Chiles and she has constantly been under the burden of expectations. The urgency to prove her mettle was felt continuously. “People didn’t expect that I was able to accomplish all the things that I was accomplishing. And that’s why I wanted to give this opportunity to show the struggle in the resilience that I had coming out of it.” The star gymnast has always been on a mission to prove naysayers wrong. Growing up, such intense was the pressure of expectations, that the budding gymnast had to explain everything about herself, down to her hair!

“I am explaining whether, you know, I’m explaining about my hair, whether I’m explaining about, you know, missing assignments because I didn’t have a coach, whether it was any of those things.” We are already aware of the kind of trauma young Jordan Chiles had to face in the hands of coach X, but the gymnast is taking slow and steady steps towards better mental health, and with her recent exploits on the mat, we know one thing for sure, there is nothing that can dim the gymnast’s sparkle!

The journey towards a better mental state

Accompanying the heartbreaking CAS ruling, came the relentless online hate for Jordan Chiles. She also had to face “utterly baseless and extremely hurtful attacks on social media.” Sometimes, those online attacks reached a certain low, questioning Chiles’ actual identity and attacking her from the race angle. The Oregon native had to deal with those attacks again silently. She said goodbye to her social media presence and went on with her life, holding on to close ones. But her patience, determination and grit have paid off tremendously. Her recent feats are too good to be true!

The former world champion is now shining bright in college gymnastics. She can carry on for hours and does the crucial job of tying together her college gymnastics team. With her phenomenal performances (we are talking two perfect 10s in a season where perfect 10s are a rarity), Jordan Chiles has catapulted the UCLA Bruins women’s gymnastics program into NCAA glory. How has this change come onto the scene? In her interaction with GoodMorningAmerica.com, Jordan revealed the reason. She said, “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 <health>.”  Well, focusing on herself and prioritizing her mental health as worked out tremendously for Jordan Chiles. Is this her secret to coming out stronger than her adversities? Could very well be!