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Jordan Chiles shared the story of how her sports psychologist helped her in her journey on and off the mat, after she dealt with years of emotional and verbal abuse. Chiles has been enjoying her career downtime since concluding the 2025 NCAA Championships, where she represented the UCLA Bruins. Jordan Chiles has been a prominent name in the sport, having represented the US team since 2014, the year she joined the Junior National Team. The 24-year-old has since been part of multiple title-winning teams and made strides in the individual competitions as well. She was also part of the silver-winning team at the Tokyo Olympics and the women's team that won gold in Paris. Beyond her gymnastics skills, Chiles has emerged as a fashion icon, earning praise for the confidence she brings to every performance. Amid her Dancing With the Stars stint, Chiles sat in conversation with fellow Olympian Ilona Maher in the latter's podcast. Maher wished to know how the gymnast managed to pull off a 'vibrant personality' in one of the toughest sports. Chiles then shared her story of how she struggled with abuse until she found her rhythm with the help of a sports psychologist, who not only supported her in gymnastics but also helped her gain a broader perspective on life. "Before Tokyo, I went through a lot of change within my career. I dealt with somebody who verbally abused me and emotionally abused me and it was a time and place that I was just like, 'I need to talk to somebody.' I tried it when I was younger. It didn't really work. It was like, dude, why are you talking about something that I don't want to be talked to about? But then I was like, maybe this will actually help me get to my next level. My mom was like, 'Do you want to try it again?' I was like, 'I guess.'"Jordan Chiles also expressed that if she had discovered the benefits of working with a psychologist earlier, her life could have been simpler."Man, I wish I had listened when I was younger. Having a sports psychologist, I think, really changed my own perspective on my own life in general. Take the sport out of it. Just my own life in general and how like, yes, people are going to try to control it, but you can also control it. I think of gymnastics." View this post on Instagram Instagram PostChiles is currently competing at the DWTS as a celebrity participant, partnered with Ezra Sosa. Jordan Chiles once shared how her relationship with food left her traumatizedChiles at the Big Fours - Source: GettyJordan Chiles has had an unpleasant relationship with food, as she was often told to look a certain way to meet the sport’s demands. Ahead of the Paris Olympics in 2024, she was in conversation with Vogue, talking about how her diet restrictions left her traumatized, but how she eventually learned that some things are not under human control. "I was traumatized when I was younger. I was getting weighed. I was told I could only eat certain things. There were a lot of things that I was told because I had to ‘look a certain way.’ But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized we’re human. Our bodies go through different changes. I’m a woman, so obviously, when it comes to hormonal situations or my cycle, I can’t control that.”"Sometimes I’ll eat it, but I won’t eat the whole thing. Because that’s kind of where that trauma comes into play. It’s like you feel somebody’s always looking at you," she added.Jordan Chiles documented her life story in her book I'm That Girl: The Power of My Dreams, which she released earlier this year.
