For years, Jordan Chiles braved through Coach X’s troublesome comments. On her body, her hair, her eating habits, her performance, basically, about a lot. It took a while for her to readjust to a proper life. And for a major part of it, both her parents, Gina Chiles and Timothy, watched helplessly. Chiles said, “My parents could see I was under a lot of pressure. But I didn’t tell them the full extent of Coach X’s extreme behavior.” But there was this one peculiar time when Gina Chiles was thankful to Coach X!

Yes, the same coach who was the cause of a lot of Chiles’ problems. Gina Chiles very well knew Coach X had some issues. This one time, Coach X called Gina, “I need help, I need help.” When Gina went over to pick her up, Coach X admitted, she had a drinking problem. So yes, she knew the basis of Coach X’s issues. She even advised her, “You need to get your life together.” Knowing this, doesn’t it sound bizarre that Gina Chiles could actually be thankful to her?

Well, this, as Jordan Chiles herself called was a ‘terrible irony.’ Here’s what had happened. In her memoir, I’m That Girl, Jordan Chiles detailed a time from 2016 when she woke up to her parents’ relentless questioning. “I remember being nudged out of dreamland to see them standing over me, asking questions I couldn’t wrap my mind around and telling me I hadn’t done anything wrong.” What were they talking about? Well, they had just seen the local news that featured a story of a former gymnast alleging Larry Nassar, the team doctor for USAG since 1996, of s——- a—— her. And it was only after Jordan affirmed, “But Larry Nassar had never touched me inappropriately, I reassured them ” that Gina and Timothy sighed in relief.

But here’s how Coach X is related in all this. When this news broke, Jordan Chiles had just completed three days of training at that infamous Ranch, where Nasser worked as a doctor. That’s when Gina Chiles got flashbacks of that time when she saw Nasser’s hands on Chiles’ leg, a day after she injured her knee. He would even text Chiles on Facebook, an account that Gina had access to, congratulating her for doing well. But that was it. Thus, Chiles wrote in her book that in retrospect, “My mom now thinks that, in a terrible irony, Coach X’s obsession with me made it difficult for him to get me alone. Even at the Ranch, she rarely let me out of her sight. “

So yes, an otherwise traumatizing episode saved Jordan from a victim in a bigger probable problem. But even while Jordan Chiles wasn’t a victim here, some of Team USA’s gymnasts, including her teammate and mentor Aly Raisman were. About 150 women made impact statements against him. And well, this turned out to be one of the biggest scandals in sports history. Jordan Chiles gave us an insider’s perspective in her book, representing the helplessness she was feeling then, “We counted ourselves lucky, even as our hearts broke for the girls he had so brutally violated. I was traumatized and I felt helpless that there was nothing I could do.”

But for Chiles, it’s always been Gina who has constantly kept her protected and in her close observation. Here’s how.

Gina, Jordan Chiles’ biggest blessing

There was a time when Coach X would tell Jordan Chiles’ parents, “Coach X told us over and over that, having trained gold medalists and elite gymnasts in the past, she was the only person who could take me to the next level,” Jordan revealed. Without her, Coach X made them believe that Jordan Chiles ‘would be nowhere.’ 

But that was probably the only time they felt helpless. After that, Gina Chiles has been up to date and completely involved in her daughter’s career. In 2018, when Tom Forster began leading Team USA nationally, Jordan Chiles’ mother, Gina, said that Forster included families in their daughters’ elite careers and that was a very big step. He has made himself available to parents, she said, something that never happened under the previous national team regime. “Parents are in the loop now,” she said, “and that makes us feel great.”

Even recently, we’ve seen how Gina Chiles thrashed the online trolls after Jordan Chiles’ Bronze medal controversy flared up. “My daughter is a highly decorated Olympian with the biggest heart and a level of sportsmanship that is unmatched.”  What do you think of all that Jordan has endured? Let us know below!