After a year of history-making achievements and jet-setting around the world, school is back in session for Jordan Chiles.
In an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, the 23-year-old Team USA gymnast — who took home a gold medal in the women’s team event at the 2024 Paris Olympics — discussed what life will look like as she prepares to return to UCLA for the 2025 gymnastics season.
“There is a little shift,” said Chiles, who spoke to Us via her partnership with Bath & Body Works. “I think being able to separate my normal life and my sport life, I can kind of navigate myself differently. I like being able to be myself and be the person that I am because I really can go into a room and be like, ‘I’m just a normal person.’ I’m not going to have you bow down to me or anything like that. Because there’s no need.”
Chiles will return for her junior season at UCLA after taking off the 2024 season to prepare for the Olympics. Since her start at the school, Chiles has vowed to maintain as much normalcy as possible.
“I honestly told myself starting my freshman year when I went school that I was just a normal kid going onto campus,” she explained. “I literally told my teammates, I told people in my classes: ‘Just treat me like a normal college student. Yes, I went to an Olympic Games and all this stuff, but I’m still just like you guys. I’m getting an education, I’m getting a degree.’”
Chiles previously represented Team USA at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, earning a team silver medal.
“They try to, and I really appreciate that,” Chiles said of her fellow Bruins. “I do get some people when I’m walking and they’re like, ‘Hey, can I get a picture?’ Yes, one-hundred percent.”
Chiles said this year will be “different” because of her latest Olympics, and though she noted all of her classes are online, she’s still prepared to be hounded.
“Typically the only reason why I’d have to go on campus would be because of practice,” she said. “It’s normal to me, because I wanted it to be like that. But probably for others it might be like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have this person on campus. This is crazy. She goes to my school.’”
The UCLA Bruins gymnastics team opens its 2025 season on January 11.
In the meantime, Chiles has partnered with Bath & Body Works on Candle Day — celebrated Friday, December 6 — when customers can begin purchasing the brand’s candles for $9.95.
“Bath and Body Works has been with me ever since I was little,” Chiles recalled. “It was something that, walking into the house, I always knew my mom had a candle on. Especially because her favorite scent was Limoncello.”
For more on Bath & Body Works’ Candle Day, click here.
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