CLEVELAND, Ohio – Jordan Chiles was late to gymnastics. She was old when she gravitated to the sport.
As in 7 years old.
But she wasn’t past her prime.
Growing up in Washington State, Chiles already had played softball, ran track, tried dance.
“That’s pretty late for a lot of people to start gymnastics,” she said. “But I picked up a lot of things really, really fast throughout my career. It’s pretty cool to say although I did start late I was able to accomplish something big. So gymnastics was actually the last resort of me trying a sport.”
Chiles is part of Gold Over America Tour, a team of female gymnasts that is crossing the country, presenting an exhibition while sending positive messages, especially for young girls. Simone Biles is billed as the star, but every gymnast in the program is an accomplished champion at one level or another.
“We want to get huge inspirational pieces out of this that people can take from us – not only women empowerment but also the fact that no matter what we go through – the struggles, the aches, the pains - we are able to be strong together and have the ability to accomplish something really big. So this tour for us is like a reward, and just to show little girls (who) are looking up to us that no matter what, you can still have fun in something you love.”
Attendees will see the athletes go through routines and watch videos. But behind the scenes and smiles, there are sacrifices. Long hours of training. School dances are skipped. Dinner with friends is tough to make. But there is a reward at the end of the training – competition at the highest level, including the Olympics.
“It was an amazing thing,” she said about being on the U.S. team at the Tokyo Games this summer.
Chiles knew what she wanted back in 2008, watching the U.S. gymnastics team compete in the Beijing Games: “I want to be just like them.” By ‘them’ she meant an Olympian, not necessarily a gymnast.
“I didn’t say specifically what sport,” she said. “I wanted to be an Olympian.” (In a prescient nod, Chiles is named after another athlete who was an Olympian – Michael Jordan.)
She watched as a powerful U.S. team - which included Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liuken and Chellsie Memmel - win silver as a team in 2008.
For Chiles, the attractive part of gymnastics is the camaraderie of the team sport.
“When we make a team, we’re making it individually not as a team until we are on the team,” she said. “So when I look into that part of the gymnastics side of everything we do, I just truly think we support each other 100%. Yes, do we have times like ‘Great, this is cool, we are competing against each other’, but it’s not like, ‘Oh my gosh, I want to tear you down.’ I want to support you; we want to support each other.”
Support is key for Chiles, whose main career obstacle involved dealing with a verbally abusive coach. As many types of athletes as there are, there are coaches and their varying styles. And Chiles had to deal with that.
“At a young age I thought it was normal. … what I went through I wish I never went through considering that my mind was at a point where I had to find it again,” Chiles said. “Yes, I do understand what she did and how she helped me. She kind of put me in a position to be where I am right now, but mentally I was not there.”
A sports psychologist helped, and Chiles is enjoying the sport, riding the wave of the U.S. team’s silver medal and the current tour – whose acronym, GOAT, doubles as ‘greatest of all time.’ Next up for her is college at UCLA, her dream school.
“I am all about the experience, and that’s what I want to do - just enjoy the experience and the bonding we get from the team,” she said. “Hopefully, we’ll see what happens after that. I am taking it day by day. Worlds (championship) might be in there. Who knows? A lot of people have been asking me about ‘24 (Paris Olympics). We’ll see what happens. I’m just taking it day by day.”
Chiles will enjoy that experience when the tour hits Cleveland next week with its athletes and positive messages.
“We’re strong, we’re dedicated, but we can also have fun,” she said. “Women empowerment is just being able to show we’re strong people, we’re together, and we’re going to ride together no matter what.”
If you go
The Athleta Presents Gold Over America Tour comes to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 20. The 110-minutes long (including intermission) show is billed as “High-Energy Gymnastics-Meets-Pop-Concert Spectacular.”
Participating athletes
• Simone Biles
• Jade Carey
• Jordan Chiles
• Melanie De Jesus dos Santos
• Laurie Hernandez
• Morgan Hurd
• Shilese Jones
• Peng-Peng Lee
• Grace McCallum
• Chellsie Memmel
• Katelyn Ohashi
• MyKayla Skinner
I am on cleveland.com’s life and culture team and cover food, beer, wine and sports-related topics. If you want to see my stories, here’s a directory on cleveland.com. Bill Wills of WTAM-1100 and I talk food and drink usually at 8:20 a.m. Thursday morning. And tune in at 7 a.m. Wednesdays for “Beer with Bona and Much, Much More” with Munch Bishop on 1350-AM The Gambler. Twitter: @mbona30.
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