If there is one athlete who knows heartbreak, it is Jordan Chiles. 2024 has perhaps been a year of greatness and a great loss for her. The world, of course, remembers the 2024 Paris Olympics moment when Jordan went on to win the bronze. Only to have it taken away and stuck in a loop of technicalities as well as appeals. While this was painful, Jordan was battling something else too, for a year! The grief of losing two of her loved ones.

2023 was a year of personal losses for Jordan. She was, in fact, still grieving going into Paris. Jordan had lost her aunt, Crystal Oliver, in March of 2023. While she tried to cope with the grief, she unfortunately lost another person in her life. Right before 2024 started, during Thanksgiving, Jordan lost her grandfather, Gene Velasquez. It broke her, but her grandfather’s words kept coming back to her all through Paris. Almost like a voice that kept pushing her ahead!

In a recent interview with Hoda Kotb from Today.com, Jordan went on to talk about the same. She recalled her grandfather’s words in “tough situations” and said, “Everything happens for a reason. There’s reasons on why you’re the person you are. There’s reasons on why people look up to you.” That’s etched in the corners of her heart, and she draws strength from it. And that’s exactly what keeps her bronze medal fight going! However, Jordan is not glum about it. In fact, she has an interesting take.

In Jordan Chiles’ words, “I’ll be able to overcome this, and I’ll be able to look back and say, you know what, ‘That was just a portion of my story.’” As Jordan sees it, it is just another chapter of a bigger story that is far from over. After the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled against Chiles, she continued her battle with an appeal to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland. And now, as the cycle of bureaucracy takes its course, Jordan is waiting for nobody. Taking Grandpa Gene’s words and believing, “Everything happens for a reason,” she is dipping her toes back into collegiate sports!

The story continues as Jordan is returning to UCLA!

Time stops for nobody, and life goes on. And Jordan Chiles? Well, she isn’t backing down. She has plans to return to the mats and stack wins, just in a different competition. Jordan will return to UCLA for the 2025 season. After a long break from collegiate gymnastics, Chiles is all set to don her Bruins leotard. “I am returning to UCLA to represent the Bruins for my two remaining years of college,” she announced on NBC’s Today Show. So why is this exciting? Well, there are two reasons.

One, Jordan Chiles is a bit of an NCAA queen. In 2023, she earned a perfect ten on uneven bars. And that was her third perfect score of that season! She, of course, won the NCAA uneven bars that year, and then she also went on to win the floor exercise title. And guess what? The floor exercise also had an almost perfect score of 9.9875 given. However, her best performance came during the 2023 NCAA Los Angeles Regional!

Jordan was crowned the all-around champion with 39.750. Overall, she has had around 40 event wins and 32 scores of 9.95 or higher! So, circling back, what is the second reason? Well, Jordan is not the only one returning to NCAA mats after Paris. One of her Olympic gold-winning teammates is also returning! Jade Carey will also be back for the 2025 season. However, she will be wearing the oranges of the Oregon State Beavers.

Jade is just as much of a star as Jordan in the NCAA world. In fact, she won a silver in all-around and floor exercise at the NCAA Championships this year. And in 2023? Well, she had seven perfect 10s and 46 event titles, which included back-to-back Pac-12 All-Around Champion titles. The two Olympians, aka NCAA stars, will be seen on the mats yet again, and it is bound to be an exciting season! And going by Jordan Chiles’ words, maybe this is the next chapter of the larger legacy that she is writing.