Just a week ago, it was 9.950 on the floor exercise for her. The Pauley Pavilion was shell-shocked, watching someone’s capability on the floor exercise. However, that gymnast, Jordan Chiles, had already hit a perfect 10 in the floor exercise this college gymnastics season. Additionally, she scored a few more near-perfect numbers on the gymnastics mat this season. Then why did the fans feel shell-shocked? Any ideas? Well, the fans were probably amazed to see Chiles’s hunger for claiming success in college gymnastics after coming off the Paris Olympics and her dedication to the college team. And recently, these elements made it to the discussion again. How?

On February 1, Chiles’s UCLA Bruins gymnastics countered Michigan State on Pauley Pavilion, presented by Wescom. In the night, Jordan stood tall again. She amassed another perfect ten on-the-floor exercise. The fans called her performance crazy. But only the Olympian knew the level of craziness behind the routine. How so? Right after the match, Chiles revealed the reason. 

In her interaction with the host, Jordan Chiles confessed to feeling unwell before the contest. In fact, on Wednesday, she had a fever of 104 degrees. Still, on Saturday, she came back and marked her second perfect ten this season. Any special motivation to enter the match? Chiles had her answer ready while keeping a proud smile on her face. “I was just like you know what. I’ma forget that in the past I’m here on the team. We’re gonna go out there and do everything that we need to do,” she claimed. She had another factor to motivate herself. 

In the same conversation, the Olympian said, “Honestly, I just took my mind, step back to 2017 when I’ve had the flu game as if anybody knows.” So, during her teenage years, Jordan had similar turns when she performed on the mat despite having a fever. But since then, she has tasted success on almost every front in her professional career. Last year she had the greatest joy in helping Team USA claim the gold medal in the women’s team final in artistic gymnastics. Shouldn’t her hunger for achieving success on the mat be fulfilled by now? It should. But there comes commitment as the game changer and on Saturday, it had a chunk of it. 

On Saturday, the No. 5 Michigan State entered Pauley Pavilion, having a zero loss in its bag. Furthermore, the program had the mindset to continue the same record against the No. 6 UCLA Bruins. Well, the program’s wish to keep a clean slate seemed to be possible before moving to rotation 4 last evening. After all, it had almost a one-point advantage till then. Nonetheless, everything changed in the Bruins’ floor exercise event, and guess who came big in that event? 

Emily Lee kicked off the event by scoring 9.875. Soon, she was joined by Emma Malabuyo (9.900), Macy McGowan (9.950), Brooklyn Mars (9.975), and Chae Campbell (9.975). A concerted approach to gain the upper hand! Still, an extra layer would have done great and Chiles brought that magic in. She led the anchor with a perfect 10! The score reached 49.800, the highest floor exercise score this college gymnastics season till now! 

Also, the score in the floor exercise posed the highest one in the Bruins’ history since 2020. So the Trojans stood up perfectly when the effort was most needed. In the end, the program claimed the victory with a slight edge over Michigan State (197.300-197.200). But there had been another scene that may have motivated Jordan Chiles and her gymnastics colleagues to go beyond their abilities on February 1. 

Jordan Chiles and others marked their attendance on a special occasion 

The Saturday night gymnastics event on February 1 was set to be something special. It was scheduled to be broadcast live on FOX nationally. The first time in the long history of college gymnastics! So, the occasion was bound to boost the viewership of the match and, in some way, the popularity of women’s gymnastics. The combination of such reasons played a part in making Jordan Chiles’s coach elated. Before the match, the UCLA Bruins coach revealed her expression in an interaction with Forbes. 

In the interaction, coach Janelle McDonald said, “To be able to be one of the teams that gets to be [competing for] the first time on Fox, I think that’s a pretty exciting thing. We get to be the team that gets to show, hopefully, a whole new audience what NCAA gymnastics is about.”  And her mentees gave her the exact prize on the day. Jordan Chiles competed and scored a perfect ten, Macy McGowan scored her career-high in the floor exercise and Emma Malabuyo again kept it clean. Those remained the memorable scenes from the night.