JORDAN CHILES TAKES THE FLOOR

THE ELITE ATHLETE OPENS UP ABOUT THE HIGHS AND THE WRENCHING LOWS OF HER JOURNEY TO OLYMPIC STARDOM IN A NEW BOOK

- ALEX ROSS

Jordan Chiles is no stranger to making history. The two-time Olympian and three-time World Championships medalist was part of the first allBlack trio of gymnasts to take the podium at the 2022 U.S. Gymnastics Championships, and two years later the 23-year-old accomplished the same feat at the Olympics in Paris. Along with helping Team U.S.A. win gold, she earned the bronze for her floor routine and stood proudly alongside silver-medalist teammate Simone Biles and Brazil’s gold medalist Rebeca Andrade.

But not all of Chiles’s history-making is the kind she’s happy to celebrate: Just days after achieving her childhood dream of winning an individual Olympic medal, she learned the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) was stripping her of her bronze, arguing that an inquiry from her coach Cecile Landi contesting her routine’s difficulty rating that increased her score hadn’t been made within the one-minute deadline.

The controversial decision left Chiles devastated (see excerpt, page 42), a heartbreak she details in her new memoir I’m That Girl: Living the Power of My Dreams (out March 4). For the first time the athlete opens up about her most challenging moments—struggling with an undiagnosed eating disorder and body dysmorphia, surviving emotional abuse at the hands of a former coach, overcoming suicidal thoughts in her darkest hour and fighting ingrained racism in a sport she’s dedicated her life to. “With this memoir, I honestly wanted to be like, ‘I’m Jordan Chiles,’” says the Vancouver, Wash., native, “‘and this is my story.’”

Dream Team The gold-winning 2024 U.S. team (from left): Simone Biles, Chiles, Hezly Rivera, Jade Carey and Suni Lee.