NY Times · Jun 24, 2021
‘I Didn’t Think the Sport Wanted Me Anymore’
ST. LOUIS — Jordan Chiles felt numb. She looked around her bedroom in Vancouver, Wash., at the dozens of medals, the rainbows of ribbons, the trophies standing in formation, all from a gymnastics career that started when she was 6.
None of it meant a thing.
She asked her mother, Gina Chiles, to take it all away. Hide it. Dump it. Burn it. Just make it disappear.
“I don’t want them in my room anymore,” she said to her mother, who was taken by surprise.
“Wait, what, your awards are the coolest thing ever,” Gina Chiles recalled saying. “We need to get you an entire U.S.A. Gymnastics room for all of them!”