“It’s something that was given to me by God, as a gift from me. Why not use it to the best of your ability?” she said. “It’s my personality. I’m very outgoing.”
Sometimes she likes to imagine that she is performing on stage, like a “touring artist.”
In a way, she is.
The U.S. Olympic gymnastics team dubbed the Paris Games its “redemption trip.” Chiles’ Olympic dreams came true in Tokyo, but she will be the first to say that those Games, postponed and hampered by the Covid pandemic, were not exactly what she imagined.
This time, not only did she and her teammates win the long-awaited gold medals, but people were there to watch them compete.
“When you have an audience, you have the ability to feel comfortable and at ease,” Chiles said of the packed stands in Paris. “You can take the energy they’re giving you and put it into the competition room. So I really had fun.”
She added, “I’m glad my family got to experience it and that they enjoyed every moment as much as I did.”
Chiles competed in all four events of the team final, being the only U.S. team athlete other than Simone Biles to do so. On his final pass, Chiles began crying as soon as his feet touched the mat.
“I think the most important thing is that it all comes down to trust within the team… I felt like at that moment we had done everything we could and the end would be something great,” she said.
Although the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics hampered the preparation of some athletes, it changed everything for the Chileans.
Before the world shut down due to the pandemic, she was thinking about abandoning her childhood dream of competing in the Olympics and completely retiring from elite gymnastics.
Chiles was a prodigy in the world of elite gymnastics for years, performing acrobatic skills that most Olympic athletes considered impossible. When she finally approached the time to fight for her Olympic dream, she found herself immersed in a training environment where she felt her progress had stagnated and said she was subjected to verbal abuse and racism.
Then Biles called.
The gymnast considered the greatest in history invited Chiles to train alongside her at the World Champions Center, a gym owned by the Biles family in Spring, Texas.
“A lot of people avoid who she is as a person because all they see of her is an athlete,” Chiles said of her training partner and friend.
She continued, “For me, I’ve known her for a long time, since I was 9 or 10 years old, so I know who she is as a person.”
After finding a new gymnastics home with Biles and her coaches, Cecile and Laurent Landi, Chiles has emerged in 2021 as a brand-new athlete. Before Tokyo, she did 24 routines in a row, securing a spot on the Olympic team that seemed so out of reach a year earlier.
“I didn’t have confidence coming from my old gym because of everything I went through…” she said. “So channeling that emotion and turning to coaches who can educate him, I think of them as second parents.”
Biles was by her side the entire time, and when the “twisties” arrived in Tokyo, Chiles was there to return the favor. Without even warming up, she replaced Biles on the uneven bars in the team final in the blink of an eye, helping Team USA win the silver medal.
“We joke, we laugh, we cry, sometimes we get mad at each other because we are like sisters,” Chiles said of Biles. “So I think it’s really cool to have a teammate with you every step of the way and enjoy everything I’ve done with her.”
In Paris, they created an Olympic moment so iconic that the Louvre took an interest.
After Chiles won her first Olympic medal on appeal in Monday’s cinematic floor exercise final, she conspired with Biles to find a way to show her admiration for Brazilian gymnastics phenom Rebeca Andrade, who won gold. Chiles had the idea of bowing to Andrade on the podium.
“She’s giving so many flowers to us Americans, you know, why don’t we give her flowers too? It was a feeling of respect at that moment,” Chiles said about Andrade.
The photo, posted by the official Olympic Games account, has racked up 43 million views on X.
“Maybe we should hang it in the Louvre…” replied the Louvre, the largest museum in the world, home to masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo.
The gesture is emblematic of a cultural shift in elite gymnastics, which Chiles has been instrumental in catalyzing. He dawned a new day in a sport that had long been characterized by icy rivalries and stoic teenagers.
At competitions, Chiles can often be seen running from one corner of an arena to another to cheer on her competitors during their floor routines, a ritual she learned while competing for UCLA in NCAA gymnastics.
“We went to college before coming back for this Olympic round and experienced something different, but we wanted to take what we experienced in the NCAA and bring it here,” Chiles said. “I feel like this is changing the game.”
She is meticulous in curating her social media feed to reflect her indomitable spirit. Any negativity from people who “aren’t turning into a four-inch piece of wood” becomes combustible.
“For me, this lights a lot of fire and I stand my ground,” Chiles said. “That’s something Simone taught me… So you just need to use that and apply it to something else.”
Next up: a return to Westwood. She will return to UCLA this fall after taking a year off to train in Paris and has her sights set on an eventual career in acting.
Her rising star has attracted many passionate glances along the way. Most notably, Beyoncé knows who she is now.
Your idol sent you a autographed copy of his latest album“Cowboy Carter”, with a personalized note acknowledging his parentage.
“Congratulations to you, Queen. I always watch you with pride and admiration,” she wrote. “Thank you for representing us. Good luck to you! All your hard work and sacrifices shine through. Praying for you and wishing you the best. Love, your twin sister, Beyoncé.”
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
