NCAA gymnastics paved pathway to Paris gold for Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles
The Olympic champions begin their 2025 season campaigns this weekend after golden summer triumph
Artistic Gymnastics
U.S. gymnasts Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles made history last summer at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 in more ways than just helping Team USA to its fourth women’s team gold medal.
The duo, who begin their 2025 seasons this weekend (3–5 January), also became the first gymnasts to win Olympic gold in the middle of NCAA careers, marking a shift in the sport’s culture and the longevity of one’s career.
Top-level collegiate gymnastics in North America, say both Carey and Chiles, helped them in their journeys back to the Games.
“I think [NCAA] really made me fall back in love with gymnastics,” Carey, a senior at Oregon State University, told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview in late 2024. “Tokyo was obviously really awesome for me, but also really hard at the same time. Going to college brought me out of my shell more, gave me a little bit more confidence.
“It just made me love gymnastics and realize I had more to give,” she concluded.
Chiles says her time as a UCLA Bruin helped shape her approach to elite gymnastics.
“NCAA experience has played a huge part,” she said. “Just seeing the difference in my maturity as an athlete, and also as a human, definitely helped me.
“NCAA is all about high energy,” Chiles continued. “You’re one team, one goal. With elite, it’s a little different, but keeping that same mindset definitely helped because going back into practice at [World Champions Centre], I was like, ‘Guys, we’re going to do this. We’re going to go out there, and we’re going to have fun.’”
While others, including Olympic champions Kyla Ross, Madison Kocian, and Suni Lee, have won Olympic gold medals before beginning their collegiate careers, Carey and Chiles are the first to do it in the midst of their time at their respective universities.
Each took a different path: Carey competed in the 2024 season while simultaneously preparing for the competitions that would decide the Paris squad; Chiles returned to her training base in Texas, putting her collegiate career on pause.
Those differing approaches, says Carey, can be instructive to women like Joscelyn Roberson, Skye Blakely, and others who have indicated they want to continue their elite careers while competing in college.
“It’s not always going to be easy, and it’s going to look different than everybody else. But if it’s something that you really want to do, you can make it happen,” Carey said. “One thing that my dad [and coach, Brian Carey] always said to me was, ‘The plan is in pencil so we can go back and erase it.’”
For Chiles, balancing elite and NCAA training, a focus on self is of the utmost importance.
“I will tell you guys, it is very hard,” she says with a laugh. “So, really pay attention to your mental health and as much self-care and time management as you can because it is a very time-consuming thing… but if you just put your mind in the best state possible, you’ll be able to do it.”
No matter the outcome, Chiles has clear hopes for anyone trying to follow in her and Carey’s footsteps: “Enjoy each and every moment as best as you can.”