Alyssa Roenigk, ESPN Senior WriterJul 30, 2024, 09:00 PM ET
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- Alyssa Roenigk is a senior writer for ESPN whose assignments have taken her to six continents and caused her to commit countless acts of recklessness. (Follow @alyroe on Twitter).
PARIS -- Jordan Chiles raised her right fist in the air, stared straight into a television camera and winked. Then she turned and performed a highlight reel of a floor routine, earning the third-highest score of the night on the apparatus and introducing herself to the larger sports audience as the fun, fearless kid-sister half of the Biles-Chiles duo.
When she hit her final pose, Chiles closed her eyes and choked back tears. Then she jumped up, turned to her teammates and yelled, "Let's go!" They were one Simone Biles floor routine from closing out a dominant gold medal performance in Tuesday's team final.
"To be a part of winning this gold medal after everything I've gone through has been an amazing experience," Chiles said after the meet. "I'm proud of every one of us. This smile is always going to be smiling."
That smile -- that wink, which was trending online before the medal ceremony ended -- encapsulates so much about who Chiles is as an athlete and teammate, as well as the role she has taken on here in Paris. She's confident, unbridled, uncensored and the consummate hype woman for her squad.
"That's who she is every day in the gym," Team USA head coach Cecile Landi said after the meet. "If she's too quiet, we kind of worry."
Chiles was the only woman on the U.S. team other than Biles who competed in all four events in Tuesday's team final. Head coach Cecile Landi said that, like Biles, Chiles knew that the highest-scoring team included her on every rotation and she was up for the job. "She loves competing," Landi said. "She worked for today and she had a blast."
Chiles also competed in the all-around in team qualification Saturday, hit all four routines and finished fourth overall in the standings. But because of a brutal rule that allows only two gymnasts per country to compete in the all-around final, and because Biles and Lee finished first and third, Chiles, who finished less than a tenth of a point behind Lee, will not compete for a medal.
Tuesday night was her all-around final.
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 31, 2024Jordan Chiles is bringing the HYPE in Paris after her uneven bars routine. 👏
📺 #ParisOlympics on NBC and Peaco*ck pic.twitter.com/ANE0ZEqxUS
"It was amazing to have her do the all-around and show how great she is at gymnastics," team strategic lead Chellsie Memmel said. "I love that she was able to contribute so much to the team."
Chiles was the perfect athlete to lead off the first rotation on vault, an event that is charged with emotion for the U.S. women.
It's where, in the team final in Tokyo, Biles realized she had the twisties -- a dangerous loss of air awareness on twisting skills -- so badly she couldn't continue the competition. It's where, also in Tokyo, Jade Carey tripped on the runway during event finals and fell out of medal contention. It's where, just last month, two of the top Olympic hopefuls were injured minutes before competition started at U.S. trials.
And it's where Chiles stood in the chalk box before opening competition for the Americans and laughed and danced and waved to the crowd. When her name was announced, she raised her hand, sprinted down the runway and nailed a double-twisting Yurchenko. She took a slight hop on her landing -- and then danced some more. Then she became the loudest fan in Bercy Arena for Carey and Biles, who rocked their vaults, too.
"I'm super proud of Jordan," Landi said. "A lot of people counted her out, especially last year when she didn't make the worlds team and when Pan Ams was a struggle. She had some injuries earlier this year and nobody counted her on this team. We kept telling her, 'You never know until it's over, so keep working, keep holding your head high and we will do what we can to help you.' She did the work, and she is now a champion today."
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 30, 2024Jordan Chiles finishes strong to close out her beam routine. 💪 #ParisOlympics
📺 NBC and Peaco*ck pic.twitter.com/5vPcNlLZKU
Chiles was the leadoff gymnast for Team USA in their first three rotations, where she set the tone for her teammates. Even when she fell on her front pike mount on beam, she remounted and nailed one of her best beam routines of the year, stuck her dismount cold and sent the crowd into a frenzy. "The old Jordan maybe would have fallen apart," Landi said. "But she got back on that beam -- and an angry beam routine always works well for her now."
And if "redemption" is the theme of this Olympic team, Chiles got some of her own shortly after dismounting the beam, in the form of a floor routine no one will soon forget. Although she will miss the all-around, Chiles qualified into next Monday's floor final, where she has one more opportunity to showcase her powerful tumbling and Beyonce-inspired choreography -- and earn a medal that's all her own.
