You’d think that being one of the top stars in the world would give you immunity from trolls. You couldn’t be any more wrong, as Olympic gold medalist Jordan Chiles can testify. Despite being one of the foremost gymnasts in the world right now, the 23-year-old has had her fair share of troubles in the form of sneering comments flying her way.

In Paris earlier this year, Chile was part of the Team USA that won gold at the 33rd Olympic Games. Considering the incredible feat it is on its own, one would imagine that Chiles would be catapulted into the fans’ hearts overnight. But that wasn’t the case, even after the incredible list of achievements she has amassed over the years as a gymnast, as Chiles revealed in her keynote speech at the Power Women Summit on Tuesday.

An article by The Wrap from December 3 shared how gymnastics GOAT Simone Biles’ BFF Jordan was the main attraction at tonight’s event. The article also mentioned how Jordan confessed earlier this year during a conversation with Elle about the anxious feelings she tends to have before competing. “Every single time I went into a competition, I was like, ‘Well, what are they going to say this time?’,“ Chiles said in July this year, as the recent The Wrap article quotes.

“I was racially attacked. I was always told, ‘You’re not the typical gymnast. You look like a man. You’re too muscular.’,” she said further to Elle on how jibes weren’t too subtle and instead were clearly hurtful. Thankfully, with her family standing in Chiles’ corner, the Olympian has managed to keep her composure and started being less disturbed by the attacks on her appearance, as she disclosed at the Power Women Summit.

At Tuesday’s Power Women Summit, Jordan “praised “women who refused to accept limits, who showed us that not only do we belong in these spaces, but we can thrive and redefine them.” And Chiles called out her doubters, who questioned her childhood goal,” the article writes, highlighting how the gymnastics sensation fulfilled her childhood goal despite dealing with upsetting comments. But it wasn’t a smooth sail by any means.

Instead, even the likes of Biles and Gabby Douglas have had to face criticism about their skin color on previous occasions. In 2020, she revealed how being a black woman in gymnastics “was a struggle growing up because you don’t see many of your kind.” She also narrated how sometimes the attacks came from the interviewers: “In the interview afterward since me and Gabby [Douglas] had been winning, she’s like ‘Well maybe if we paint our skin black we’ll win too,’,” she recalled. Thankfully, her own experience prompted Biles to give her best to ensure Jordan didn’t have to suffer the same horrors.

Jordan Chiles has overcome daunting pressure to become a golden girl

Chiles had previously recalled about her bitter experience with one of her ex-coaches. “I had a coach who verbally ab**ed me and emotionally ab**ed me. There were just a lot of things that she stripped from me. There were a lot of doubts. She called me fat, she said I looked like a doughnut,” she revealed about the mental duress she had to push through to reach where she is now. Thankfully, the hard times also helped Jordan to harden up and set her gaze on the ultimate prize and continue its pursuit with fixation. Moreover, luckily, she had a few helping hands along the way.

Jordan’s mom Gina revealed in an interview in October how the gymnastics phenom Simone Biles was crucial for Jordan to bounce back from her heartbreak in 2018. After being dropped from the national team, Chiles was pondering leaving the sport altogether, but Biles intervened. Fresh from her Rio Olympics triumph, the Houston native convinced Chiles to relocate to train together at WCC. “It was exactly the right move. There’s not a person that’s gonna argue that Simone is the greatest of all time and having that to shoot for it, it just made Jordan better,” Gina said in an episode of Got It From My Momma Podcast.

Thankfully, everything turned out to be brighter ever since Chiles started training in close proximity to Simone. Even now, as some fans and the gymnast’s family continue to note their displeasure over the CAS stripping away Jordan’s Olympic bronze over a controversial issue, she looks to make the most of the opportunities at hand. After a gap of two years, Chiles is set to make her collegiate comeback with the UCLA Bruins with the hope of bagging her first NCAA All-Around gold. But how do you think she’ll fare? Share your predictions below!