Jordan Chiles is more than just an Olympic gymnast. She's an entertainer. (2024)

"It's something that was given to me by God, like my gift. Why not use it to the best of my ability?" she said. "It’s my personality. I’m very outgoing."

Sometimes, she likes to imagine that she’s performing onstage, like an "artist on tour."

In a way, she is.

The U.S. Olympic gymnastics team dubbed the Paris Games its "redemption tour." Chiles' Olympic dreams came true in Tokyo, but she will be the first to say those Games, delayed and dampened by the Covid pandemic, weren't quite what she had imagined.

This time around, she and her teammates not only won their long-awaited gold medals, but also people were there to see them compete.

"When you have an audience, it gives you that ability to be comfortable and at ease," Chiles said of the packed Paris stands."You can kind of take that energy that they're giving you and put it out onto the competition floor. So I really had fun."

She added, "I'm happy my family got the experience and that they got to enjoy every moment as much as I did."

Chiles performed on all four events in the team final, the only Team USA athlete besides Simone Biles to do so. On her last tumbling pass, Chiles burst into tears as soon as her feet hit the mat.

"I think the biggest thing is, it’s all about trust within the team ... I just felt like in that moment, we had done everything that we could, and the ending was going to be something great," she said.

While the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics hindered the preparation of some athletes, it changed everything for Chiles.

Before the world shut down amid the pandemic, she was thinking of abandoning her childhood dream of competing at the Olympics and retiring from elite gymnastics altogether.

Chiles had been a prodigy in the elite gymnastics world for years, performing acrobatic skills most Olympians found impossible. When the time to contend for her Olympic dream finally neared, she found herself immersed in a training environment where she felt like her progress had stagnated and said she was subjected to verbal abuse and racism.

Then, Biles called.

The gymnast widely regarded as the greatest in history invited Chiles to train alongside her at World Champions Centre, the gym the Biles family owns in Spring, Texas.

"A lot of people kind of shy away from who she is as a person, because all they see her as is an athlete," Chiles said of her training partner and friend.

She continued, "For me, I've known her for a very long time, since I was like 9 or 10 years old, so I know who she is as a person."

After finding a new gymnastics home with Biles and her coaches, Cecile and Laurent Landi, Chiles emerged in 2021 an entirely new athlete. In the lead-up to Tokyo, she hit 24 routines in a row, clinching a spot on the Olympic team that had seemed so far out of her grasp a year earlier.

"I didn't have confidence coming from my old gym because of everything that I had went through...," she said. "So channeling that emotion and going to coaches who can uplift you, I think of them as second parents."

Biles was by her side the whole time, and when the "twisties" descended in Tokyo, Chiles was there to return the favor. Without even warming up, she replaced Biles on the uneven bars in the team final on a moment's notice, helping Team USA to a silver medal.

"We joke, we laugh, we cry, we sometimes get mad at each other because we're like sisters," Chiles said of Biles. "So I think it's really cool just having a teammate with you every step of the way and just to enjoy everything that I've done with her."

In Paris, they created an Olympic moment so iconic, the Louvre is interested.

After Chiles won her first Olympic medal on appeal in Monday's cinematic floor exercise final, she conspired with Biles to find a way to display their admiration for Brazilian gymnastics phenom Rebeca Andrade, who won gold. Chiles came up with the idea to bow down to Andrade on the podium.

"She's giving us USA people so many flowers, you know, why don't we give her her flowers as well? It just felt respectful in that moment," Chiles said of Andrade.

The photo, which was posted by the official account of the Olympic Games, amassed 43 million views on X.

“Maybe we should hang it in the Louvre…,” replied the Louvre, the world's largest museum, which houses masterpiece artworks such as the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo.

The gesture is emblematic of a shifting culture in elite gymnastics, one that Chiles has been instrumental in catalyzing. A new day has dawned in a sport which was long characterized by icy rivalries and stoic teenagers.

At competitions, Chiles can often be seen running from one corner of an arena to another to cheer on her competitors during their floor routines, a ritual she picked up while competing for UCLA in NCAA gymnastics.

"We went to college before we came back for this Olympic go round and we did experience something different, but we wanted to take what we experienced in NCAA and bring it here," Chiles said. "I feel like that’s kind of changing the game."

She is meticulous in curating her social media feed to reflect her indomitable spirit. Any negativity from people who "aren't flipping on a four-inch piece of wood" becomes fuel.

"For me, it sparks a lot of fire and I stand my ground," Chiles said. "That’s one thing Simone did teach me ... So you kind of just have to use that and put it towards something else."

Up next: a return to Westwood. She'll return to UCLA this fall after taking a year off to train for Paris and is eyeing an eventual career as an actress.

Her rising star has attracted many adoring eyes along the way. Most notably, Beyoncé knows who she is now.

Her idol sent her a signed copy of her latest album, "Cowboy Carter," with a personalized note, acknowledging their kinship.

“Congrats to you Queen. I always watch you with pride and admiration,” Beyoncé wrote. “Thank you for repping us. Good luck to you! All your hard work and sacrifices shine bright. Praying for you and wishing you the best. Love, your twin, Beyoncé.”