Jordan Chiles: "I keep telling everybody, I'm not done."
The Tokyo 2020 team silver medallist plans to make a run at the 2022 Worlds and, possibly, Paris 2024
Artistic Gymnastics
Tokyo 2020 Olympic artistic gymnastics team silver medallist Jordan Chiles of the United States isn’t done with elite gymnastics quite yet.
The freshman standout at the University of California at Los Angeles says she plans to target the 2022 World Gymnastics Championships this October and, possibly, the Paris 2024 Games.
“I am going to try for worlds this year. That is something that I put my eye on and I will. I keep telling everybody, I'm not done,” Chiles told Olympics.com Wednesday (30 March) in an exclusive interview from Raleigh, North Carolina, where her Bruins are set to compete in the NCAA regionals beginning on Thursday. “I feel like I haven't accomplished something. Yes, I did go to the Olympics, but for me, I feel like I'm not done with the elite world quite yet.”
The 20-year-old has shown much of her elite-level repertoire throughout the collegiate season, which uses easier scoring than the Olympic Games. Chiles has maintained the bulk of her Tokyo uneven bars routine, displayed a Yurchenko double full vault early in the season and in recent weeks performed a full-twisting double layout on the floor exercise.
“I have been playing around. I get… I don't want to say bored, but for me, when I do new things, it makes me more hyped about stuff,” explained Chiles. “So even if it's skills that I've done for the past three years - the full-in layout or the Moors or Arabian double pike or Jaeger – it makes me feel good that I still have those skills."
Jordan Chiles’ Paris 2024 approach: ‘Day by day’
Chiles says she will return to Houston, Texas, after the collegiate season to train alongside coaches Cecile and Laurent Landi at World Champions Centre. Chiles moved to Houston in 2019, adding seven-time Olympic medallist Simone Biles as her training partner.
She’s less sure about a run at a second Olympic Games in Paris, taking a wait-and-see approach.
“I'm going to just take it day by day, month by month, making sure I'm mentally there because I know physically I can be there,” Chiles said.
But it’s been on her mind since a disappointing performance in the opening round of competition in Tokyo.
“During qualifications, obviously… I didn't have the best meet of my life and the reason why Paris came up is because I barely hit my peak. At that point I was like, ‘OK, so if this is me not really at my peak, what can I do more?’” said Chiles.
Chiles has already clearly thought a lot about a return, saying she'd train the summers in Texas to compete at the U.S. Classic, U.S. championships and worlds before returning to UCLA for the 2023 season. If she does make a run at Paris, she said she'd sit out the 2024 collegiate season to prepare.
It's the challenge of a second Games appearance that excites her the most.
“I was like, 'You know what? I don't mind trying for another Olympics. I don't mind pushing myself to that limit because I like challenges. I knew at that moment [in Tokyo], OK, this is my challenge,' and this is something that I'm looking forward to," she said.