Olympic silver medalist Jordan Chiles explains how the landscape has changed for women of color since she first started doing gymnastics — and what she’s…
Olympic silver medalist Jordan Chiles says the landscape has changed for women of color since she first started doing gymnastics — and shares what she’s doing to help.Whether through her words, her actions, or her music, the Olympic silver-medal winner is helping to change the landscape -- and the soundtrack -- of gymnastics. As a young gymnast, Chiles said she didn't see herself represented in the winners on the podiums or in most of the routines.
Chiles, after winning a silver medal with Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, went on to turn the gymnastics mat into a dance floor.in 2023, she used a 1990s hip-hop medley for her floor routine at the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships. From DJ Kool's"Let Me Clear My Throat" to Salt-N-Pepa's"Shoop," Chiles' execution wowed the crowd and the judges, earning a perfect 10 that helped send UCLA to the National Championships.
"It was literally me and this other girl who was trying to go for the Olympics during that timeframe," she said.From 1980 when Luci Collins became the first Black woman to make the U.S. women's gymnastics team at the Olympics to the time Chiles began gymnastics, only two other Black women had represented Team USA in women's gymnastics.
"My mom finally told me. She was like, 'You're not doing anything wrong, it's kind of like who you are and your skin color.""I wanted to be done because I didn't think, one, the sport wanted me," she said."I didn't think people around me wanted to see this beautiful Black girl in a anymore. There were a lot of things that were going through my head. But now when I think back, I'm happy I didn't do that.
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