Jordan Chiles on dealing with online bullying: "It's really hard not looking at the comments"
The Olympic silver medallist and NCAA superstar spoke during the latest session of the United Nations commission on the Status of Women: "As a female athlete, it's really hard but knowing that we have the ability to speak about it... I think that's honestly an amazing thing," she said.
Artistic Gymnastics
Olympic artistic gymnastics team silver medallist Jordan Chiles of the United States said Friday (10 March) during the latest session of the United Nations commission on the Status of Women that it's difficult to ignore online bullies.
"As a female athlete, it's really hard being able to have that ability to continue your sport when there's so much cyber-bullying going around," said Chiles, who was part of the U.S. team at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
"I can give you an example - if there is a video posted of me online - it's really hard not looking at the comments, knowing somebody is criticising you for whether or not you're not doing good enough, not looking the same as everybody else or something like that.
"Knowing that we have the ability to speak about it and learn about the different ways that we can make sure our mental health is OK... I think that's honestly an amazing thing," she concluded.
The 21-year-old was part of the U.S. team that won a historic sixth-straight world team title in 2022 and is currently in the midst of a stellar sophomore season as part of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) women's gymnastics team. Her Bruins are currently ranked fourth nationally, and Chiles is currently the second ranked individual. Her 39.900 all-around total on Saturday (11 March) against Iowa State is UCLA's second-highest score of all time.
Despite the success, Chiles still feels the sting of negative social media.
"Social media is something that I personally dislike. I know as athletes that's our platform, that's what we use. So it's really hard to step away from," she admitted.
Though a solution may be difficult to find, Chiles hopes that coaches can help their athletes navigate the sometimes difficult realities online.
"If there is any way that we can have our coaches helping us out, being able to speak to people, to tell them our truth, what we can do... so that we can pass that era of that bullying process [that would help]," said Chiles.
"I feel like it's the same as being in school: You have a teacher or principal that you can talk to if you're being bullied, but for us it's more difficult. What are we going to do in order to push past [it]? Who am I doing to speak to? That's the communication part.
"At the end of the day, if we have something online that we can incorporate to have the coaches and athletes go through to figure out if someone is being bullied, if you as an athlete, are being bullied. Especially because of what a big thing social media is."