Keeping the fire
Facing burnout, Jordan Chiles moved to Texas to train alongside Simone Biles. Here, she rekindled her love of gymnastics and forged her path to Tokyo.
When Jordan Chiles talked her parents into buying a dog as a 2016 Christmas present, she named it Tokyo Gold, a name that embodied her goals and expectations for her gymnastics career.
By 2018, however, Chiles’ confidence had faded into despair and the belief that she was spinning her wheels in a sport that didn’t want her.
Her Olympic dreams, however, are reality, thanks to a cross-country move from Vancouver, Wash., to suburban Houston, nurturing encouragement from new coaches and the support of a friend who happens to be the best gymnast in the world.
While her Pomeranian watches from home, Chiles, 20, is two performances away from an almostcertain gold medal as part of the four-member United States women’s gymnastics team that will compete in Tokyo next week.
“This is the happy ending I’ve had in mind for this journey that began when I was 6½ and I told myself in 2008 that I wanted to be an Olympian,” she said.
Chiles will be in Tokyo alongside her “ride or die” companion Simone Biles, who encouraged Chiles to move from Washington to Texas to train at the Biles family’s World Champions Centre in south Montgomery County.
She arrived in 2019 and, buoyed by working alongside Biles and with coaches Laurent and Cecile Landi, has rebuilt her confidence to re-emerged as arguably the most consistent, wellrounded gymnast in the nation not named Biles.
But for the comeback associated with her move to the Houston area, however, Chiles could have become another case of gymnastics burnout associated with the “my way or the highway” coaching methods that have dominated the sport for years.
“She had a coach (in Washington) who was emotionally and mentally abusive, and it took a toll on Jordan over time,” said Gina Chiles, who joined her youngest of five children in moving to the Houston area.
“Jordan had a difficult time separating the experience from gymnastics. She thought she hated gymnastics because she was miserable. It broke her confidence. She wasn’t consistent because she was constantly torn down, and it eroded her ability to do what she knew she was capable of doing.”
Chiles entered the elite fast track program in 2012 at age 11. She won junior all-around titles in 2013 and 2014 and in 2017 finished second in her senior nationals debut but slipped to 11th a year later.
“In 2018, I didn’t practice, I didn’t do anything,” she said. “I didn’t even feel like waking up to even think of going to practice. I don’t want to say I was in a depression mode, but I felt really down on myself.”
Gina Chiles presumed that the mental stress that plagued Jordan with her former coach “was just part of the elite gymnastics culture.”
“As a parent, I’m thinking the results are there,” she said. “There must be something right. We were constantly doing things to make Jordan comfortable. But there was a situation at a national team camp in 2017 that happened with her previous coach that was bad. And then we said ‘no more.’
“I gave Jordan an out. I said, ‘I’m so sorry. I don’t know how we missed this or how we allowed this to happen on our watch. If you want to be done with the sport, that’s OK. I thought she was going to be done but she said, ‘I have this dream, and I want to keep pushing.’ ”
Chiles talked to Biles about moving to Houston at a 2018 training camp and, encouraged by another coach at her former gym, made the move in 2019.
She improved to sixth at nationals in 2019 and this year was second to Biles at the U.S. Classic in Indianapolis and third at the national championships in Fort Worth and at the Olympic trials in St. Louis.
“Moving here and having the support that I have now is definitely has helped,” she said. “My coaches helped me with that. Before, when it came to confidence, even competing, it was just not something that was in me. A lot of the confidence is from the people and the support I get.”
Chiles said she benefited from the COVID-19-related postponement of the Olympic Games, which she said “gave me the time to understand myself and who I could be.” She also credits the Landis, who she described as “the dopest people I’ve ever met.”
Gymnastics fans familiar with her past struggles have rallied to her as well, with ovations after her final events in Fort Worth and St. Louis and tearful, emotional reactions by Chiles and her family.
“Everybody was standing up and cheering, and it was because people liked this kid,” Gina Chiles said. “She dug and dug and dug and didn’t give up.
“People have always considered her as an underdog or a dark horse, but she’s never felt like that. She’s always felt like she’s capable. She didn’t have the support system outside of just family and friends. Now she has, and it’s a beautiful thing.”
Chiles said she was surprised by the reaction that fans had to her success.
“I didn’t know, like, how big an impact that I have on a lot of people,” Chiles said. “Having so many people tell me we’re so proud of you, we’re so happy for you, that’s so cool.”
Her accomplishments, Chiles said, represent an accomplishment for the Biles family gym, which has sent nearly a dozen gymnasts to college in the four years since it opened. It also reflects, she said, her bond with Biles herself.
“You need someone who can help you no matter the circumstances, whether you’re annoyed or tired or angry, someone who can understand,” she said. “That’s been our relationship. She’s like my big sister, and that is where the encouragement comes from.”
Chiles “had a lot of talent to give, and I didn’t think it was being directed in the right direction,” Biles said. “She got to have the opportunity to come down here and train, and she’s made the Olympic team.”
Mother and daughter both credit the Landis’ calm direction for Chiles’ improvement.
“She was not used to people wanting to hear what she wanted to do, but Laurent and Cecile said, ‘This is your journey. This is wherever you want to land. If it’s college gymnastics, that’s what we’re going to take you. If it’s the Olympics, that’s where we’re going to take you,’ ” Gina Chiles said.
“It’s one thing when your parents are your cheerleaders, but when you have the people who are taking you along that journey and believe in your dream for you, it changes something on the inside. Happy Jordan equals the results that we’re seeing today.”
Cecile Landi said she and her husband want to guide the person as much as the athlete.
“We’ve shown that we can be strict and fair and have successful athletes,” she said. “It’s about the overall person, not just the gymnast. We’re here to guide and to help them.”
Chiles said she also benefited from the post-scandal reforms attempted by USA Gymnastics that included the hiring of Tom Forster as high performance director, the supervisory position once held by national team coordinator Martha Karolyi.
“You definitely could tell who was with Martha in the past and who never had her,” Chiles said. “I think it’s how we respect each other and how the coaches see us. I have been in both eras, and you can tell the difference. I can feel the difference.”
Gina Chiles also places great store by the fact that World Champions Centre is a Black-owned business with a diverse group of students.
“When we first came here to train, I would sit in the viewing area and it kind of just hit me, like, something’s just different,” she said. “Then you look at the floor and see the amazing representation.”
Chiles is the youngest of five children, and the family separation has been a strain for both mother and daughter. Timothy Chiles flies to Houston for regular visits, and Chiles’ siblings and other family members have visited as well.
In her down time, Chiles has memorized the store layout of The Woodlands Mall, adding to her collection of 100 pairs of shoes, including 50 pair of Jordan brand sneakers (she was named for Michael Jordan).
She plans to attend UCLA after wrapping up the post-Olympics tour and wants to major in general business and minor in zoology; in addition to Tokyo Gold, she has another dog at home in Washington and a pet snake, a ball python named Gucci.
First, though, comes a trip to Tokyo and the hard-won culmination of a lifetime dream.
“I wish little bitty Jordan could see what I have done and where I am now, she said.
“Where am I at? I’m going to Tokyo.”