Simone Biles’ BFF Jordan Chiles Predicted Tokyo Debacle 4 Weeks Before It Actually Happened: “Didn’t Look Okay”

The thing about having a best friend is that they often know you better than you know yourself. Especially when the chips are down. For Simone Biles, that person has been Jordan Chiles. The two had been training together since 2019 at the World Champions Center, and it’s safe to say they knew how each other functioned like the back of their hands. Thus, before Biles’ world went off the rails in Tokyo, Chiles didn’t need a flashing neon sign to realize something was up.

Right at the start of January 2025, Simone Biles was named the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year. After all, she’s had a banner year in Paris and elsewhere. However, as we recollect her journey at large, it’s impossible to chalk out her Tokyo nightmare, which, by the way, Jordan Chiles had picked up hints about long before anyone did. Per her, the buildup to Biles’ ‘twisties’ began on American soil itself, not in the Japanese capital!

Simone Biles’ Olympic Trials upset

As per Sports Illustrated, Jordan Chiles’ first call of concern for Simone arose in the USA while they were at the Olympic Gymnastics Trials held between June 27- 30 in Minneapolis. What felt wrong? Well, it was just written all over Biles’ face that things weren’t all right. “Her face just didn’t look O.K. to me,” Chiles recalled.

However, over the three days of competition, the second was probably where things took a nosedive. That night, at the U.S. Olympics Gymnastics Trials for Tokyo, Simone Biles had fallen off while performing the beam routine and was quite upset about it. “I kinda got in my head,” Biles admitted later. But for Chiles, though, it was like watching someone flip a switch.

From the next day on, the best friend noted, “Something just turned off” with Biles. The seasoned gymnast who was touted to win it all in Tokyo started snapping at her teammates! And for Chiles, that was the ultimate red flag. Because it was a completely ‘out-of-character response’ coming from Biles, who appeared to be struggling.

It felt as though Simone Biles read too much into that fall. Jordan Chiles revealed that that very night, Biles was twisting and flipping on her hotel bed, almost like she was trying to remind herself how to be Simone Biles, the GOAT. Well, even the biggest of stars can sure have moments of self-doubt, and this was Biles’.

Interestingly, the same thing happened at the U.S. Olympic Trials for Paris. Biles’ Paris Trials beam routine was again shakier than usual until a moment came when she lost her balance on an aerial and fell off. That brought her day 2 score down to 13.900 and left the gymnast feeling ‘very very p*ssed’ about her performance. However, the improvement was evident. It did not affect her as much this time around, as it did back then. But even in 2021, when Biles battled that uncertain phase, Chiles and Team USA supported her and stood up for her at all times.

Chiles had Simone Biles’ back after Tokyo

Not for a split second did Simone Biles’ BFF Jordan Chiles let anyone weigh the veteran down over her Tokyo debacle. “I supported her as much as I could,” said Chiles after the Tokyo Games. But this came with certain limitations. After all, Chiles could not be in Biles’ boots to know what she was going through. Neither did she know what her life looked like beyond the gymnastics world. But she was always there in whatever capacity she could be.

While she was going through the thick of ‘twisties,’ Jordan Chiles told E! News, in August 2021 she would constantly ask Biles, “Hey, do you need anything? I can help you with this or that.” And even though the answers varied on different days, Chiles was flexible to accommodate them. “However she was feeling that day, I was like, ‘OK, I give you my love. You can receive it.’ I just try to support her in different ways,” said the UCLA gymnast.

In fact, when the world called Simone Biles out for dropping off the events in Tokyo, Chiles even shut out the naysayers, saying, “She’s not a quitter. But… she knows her body more than anybody else,” as reported by CNN in November 2024. And to date, Chiles believes what Biles did was great for the sport in general. It showed that gymnastics doesn’t have to be about being so hard on yourself. Moreover, it gives people a great insight into the human side of things, not just the athlete part. What do you think about her bond with Simone? Let us know in the comments down below!