“When you felt like everything could be in shambles and there’s that one thing that can lift it up… that’s what I felt like UCLA Gymnastics did for me.” Jordan Chiles didn’t hold back when opening up about the storm she weathered post-Paris Olympics. For many, that summer was a celebration of athletic excellence, but for Chiles, it left behind a wound deeper than what met the eye. The pain of watching a medal slip away, the pressure of Olympic expectations, the incessant social media backlash, and the weight of silence that followed. She carried it all. Her return to collegiate gymnastics was more than just routines and ribbons. But in what way?

After the bronze medal debacle, Jordan Chiles had to prove herself. Her return to the NCAA realm was about survival. It was about reclaiming joy. After a year off to chase Olympic dreams, Jordan came back to UCLA and found something she hadn’t realized she needed so badly. In a year where the Bruins made history, scoring a program-best 198.450 at the Big Ten Championships and securing both the regular season and conference titles for the first time ever, Chiles wasn’t just part of the story. She was its heartbeat. They may have taken the medal in Paris, but they couldn’t take her spirit.

The official ESPNW account hit Twitter, posting a video with the caption, “Jordan Chiles’ journey from the Paris Olympics to the NCAA Championship had its fair share of ups and downs.” And it truly did. Behind every routine this season was a deeper, more personal story. After Paris, the backlash was swift and unforgiving. “I was not able to even move. I was stuck in my bed,” she shared in a gut-wrenching interview. The weight of online hate forced her to shut down, literally and emotionally. “I was mentally gone, mentally not okay… Occasionally I don’t post for a reason because I never know what the comments are going to say… What’s going to happen this time? What am I going to have to see on Twitter?” Her words reveal just how brutal the spotlight can be when it turns on you.

But even in the darkness, she searched for light. “It was finally something that I felt the encouragement back in myself… It felt like finally I was like, this is what it’s like to compete again.” That something was UCLA Gymnastics. It wasn’t just about sticking a landing anymore. It was about standing back up. About finding a rhythm to life again. She wasn’t trying to escape Paris, she was trying to feel whole after it. And for the first time in a long time, the roar of the Pauley Pavilion crowd gave her more than adrenaline. It gave her healing.

Long before Paris, long before the medals and the pressure, gymnastics had already saved Jordan once. In her memoir I’m That Girl: Living The Power Of My Dreams, she opened up about growing up with ADHD and struggling to control her spontaneous, hyperactive energy. “My sport saved my life. I had really, really bad ADHD when I was younger, and gymnastics helped me calm down. I fell in love with flipping around and doing crazy things. I always had a very spontaneous mind.” That love, that raw joy for movement, is what brought her back. And without it, without her, gymnastics just wouldn’t be the same.

Jordan Chiles is leading UCLA’s charge to NCAA Championship

Now all eyes turn to Fort Worth, Texas, where Jordan Chiles will bring her firepower to the NCAA Championships. Coming off a dramatic regional final, the UCLA Bruins secured their ticket with a gritty 197.625, just behind Utah’s 197.825. And at the heart of it all? Chiles. Whether it was recovering from a tough floor landing or nailing a clean Yurchenko full-on vault for a 9.900, she was the heartbeat of the team when it mattered most.

But if there was ever a definition of clutch, it was Chiles on beam. With Denver breathing down their necks, the moment demanded perfection. And that’s exactly what she delivered. Her routine was ice-cold precision, from the acro series to the stuck dismount. Another 9,900. Another Jordan Chiles masterclass in composure under pressure. That routine didn’t just send UCLA to Nationals. It reminded the gymnastics world exactly who she is.

And in peak Jordan fashion, she made sure to celebrate the high before diving back into the grind. With Nationals looming, she hit pause just long enough for a two-day Coachella moment before returning to the gym recharged. Back in Westwood, the Bruins are riding high, having shattered attendance records on Senior Day with 12,918 fans. The energy is electric, the records are falling, and with Chiles at the helm, UCLA looks less like a team on a run and more like a team on a mission.