Fresh off another NCAA gold medal, Jordan Chiles says she’s “hungry for more.”
In a new interview with PEOPLE, the 24-year-old U.S. gymnast says she relishes winning the individual NCAA Women’s Gymnastics gold medal in uneven bars last month and vows to return for more next season.
“It definitely was an amazing experience,” says Chiles, who also won NCAA gold in uneven bars in 2023 before taking 2024 off to prepare for the Paris Olympics. “I’m one of the only athletes that’s ever won back-to-back event titles on bars. So, I think it was really cool to see that I made history again and that I had that opportunity. It just makes me hungry for more. If I can do it twice, maybe I can do it three times, four times, as many times as my body allows it. I really had fun with it and I wouldn’t change the world for anything that happened.”
Chiles, who spoke with PEOPLE to announce her new partnership as a mental health ambassador for CorePower Yoga, also opened up about her plans for competing in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
“It’s on my mind,” Chiles says. “It’s not something that I just let go. Obviously, you know, I just did Paris and I went straight into school. So, I think being able to just take it day-by-day, month-by-month and year-by-year. We have three more years until then, so we’ll see what happens. But it’s not completely out of my head. I still think about it.”
Chiles called it “a valid question,” whether she and longtime U.S. gymnastics teammate Simone Biles will return for another Olympic competition. “I like to wonder,” the UCLA junior says. “I mean, we came back for two and I came back for another one. [Simone] came back for a third one. So, it’s not a bad question.”
But right now, Chiles is taking a breath.
Chiles, who was a core member of the 2024 Olympic gold medal-winning U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team, says she’s “excited” about becoming the new face of mental health for CorePower Yoga.
“I’m really excited,” Chiles says about the partnership. “This campaign and this whole mental awareness and being able to bring strength and mentality together and being able to bring that relief and that ‘Stress Free Day’ of yours, and just letting yourself go. I think it’s amazing that they chose me, because that’s literally me almost every day.”
Related: Jordan Chiles Wasn’t ‘Able to Move’ After ‘Devastating’ Olympics Medal Controversy: ‘I Still Struggle to Talk About It’
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Jordan Chiles
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Chiles tells PEOPLE she and her UCLA teammates are taking a trip to Miami to celebrate the season and to unwind. For the two-time Olympic medal winner, it feels like the first chance in years to truly “just enjoy life.”
“As a college student, it definitely can be very overwhelming,” says Chiles, explaining she’ll take more than a month off from training following the NCAA season. “I think it’s just, well, since Paris it’s been crazy. But I’ve been enjoying it, for sure. Now that the college season has come to an end, I think, you know, it’s time for Jordan to relax herself. I’ve been going for a very long time.”
Related: Jordan Chiles Recalls the Moment She Realized She Wasn’t Being Treated Fairly as a Black Athlete (Exclusive)
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Jordan Chiles
Even when Chiles is taking time off, she’s still working. Between the bronze medal controversy in Paris and taking home another NCAA gold last month, Chiles released her debut memoir, opening up about her life and career for the first time.
“I felt so relieved,” Chiles says about the book’s release earlier this year. “I felt like, ‘Okay, well now I get the ability to tell my story how it’s supposed to be told, because a lot of people like to put out narratives and had things in their heads that they thought were true and weren’t. So, being able to actually tell my story how it’s supposed to be told, and I get to let the whole world know, it was an amazing feeling. It was really like, I cried because I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. Like, my book is out!’ Like, my story from since I was born all the way until I was, you know, 23 years old at the Paris Olympics, everything like that. Like, that’s my life. I just put my life in a book! It was just crazy. I was very happy for myself.”
Related: Jordan Chiles Reveals Moment She Learned She’d Been Stripped of Her Bronze Medal: ‘Sound of My Heart Breaking’ (Exclusive)
Chiles, who at times has avoided speaking publicly about the medal controversy, says “it wasn’t a scary thing” to finally open up about the incident, which resulted in her being forced to forfeit the bronze.
“I wanted the world to know who Jordan Chiles is and is trying to become,” Chiles says. “It definitely was, you know, ‘Y’all want to know how everything turned out? I’m gonna give it to you.’ So, I think it was more of a relief, because there were some things that I had to read, and hearing them over again, it just reminded myself, ‘Wow, Jordan, like, you’ve gone through a lot, but look at you! You’re accomplishing so much. You’re, you’re doing so much within your life! And you get to experience so much more. Yes, you had trauma yesterday, things that happened to you, but at the end of the day, you get to wake up and live another day.’ So, it was a relief, wow, I actually did it. Look at me go!”
Read the original article on People
