For Olympic silver medalist Jordan Chiles [1], every gymnastics competition mat seems to be a dance floor — and that's absolutely the case with her 2023 floor routine. For her sophomore season at UCLA, Chiles has been competing with a '90s hip-hop floor routine that wows in energy, vibe, and execution. And yesterday, at the NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships, it earned her a National Champion title in floor exercise.
On April 13, during the team semifinals and individual portion of the college nationals competition, Chiles scored a 9.9875, beating out six gymnasts who were all tied for second with a score of 9.9500 [2]. And that's not all: Chiles also scored a perfect 10 on bars, making her the reigning national champion on that event as well.
Chiles opens the floor routine with DJ Kool's "Let Me Clear My Throat," powering through a double layout pass and demonstrating the definition of "sticking the landing." Then she dances through Salt-N-Pepa's "Push It" and "Shoop," nailing a double back tuck pass, and finishes with an absurdly high double pike. The crowd gets louder after every landing and explodes when she finishes, with attitude, on the floor, her legs and arms crossed.
Though this performance was enough to snag her the title, it wasn't Chiles's highest-scoring floor routine this season. At the NCAA Los Angeles Regional Final, it earned her a perfect 10, helping to send UCLA to the National Championships for the first time since 2019.
When Chiles debuted the routine at the start of the season, fans were immediately obsessed. The Instagram video [3] of the performance, posted on Jan. 30 by the PAC-12 conference (the NCAA conference, which broadcasted the meet), was captioned with: "Jordan Chiles [4] ATE this routine 🔥." One user commented, "As usual, ate and left no crumbs." While another wrote, "She just sent everybody a message –I don't care different country or continent. UCLA, HipHop is real; it's taken over gymnastics! For black history month Lady Chiles going to be the first person I show. Amazed!"
Back in September 2022, Chiles told POPSUGAR [5]: "What people see is Jordan Chiles, the Olympian, the girl who stepped in and helped [at the Olympics]." But she wants to be remembered as more than an Olympic hero: she's also "[t]hat same girl who's going to bring the joy and the fun to the sport."
And what's better proof of that than this floor routine? When UCLA posted her perfect-10 regional performance of the routine [6], one Instagram user commented: "She is pure joy 🤩! Congratulations 🎉 to the entire team!"
UCLA walked into the NCAA Nationals in Fort Worth as the top-ranked team in the nation on floor exercise, in huge part thanks to Chiles. While she earned the top spot in floor and bars, Utah's Maile O'Keefe snagged a perfect 10 and the national title on balance beam, as well as the all-around individual title. And Oklahoma's Olivia Trautman scored first on vault.
The individual competition has wrapped, but the national team competition continues with the team finals on Saturday. Sadly, Chiles and UCLA didn't qualify. Oklahoma, Utah, LSU, and Florida will compete for the team title at 4 pm ET on Saturday on ABC.
Still, Chiles's mom, Gina Chiles, commented on the UCLA Gymnastics Instagram [7] post sharing the news of her daughter's double victory, writing: "I can't stop tearing up. Proud mom is an understatement. 💙💛"
While the collegiate gymnastics season will soon be coming to a close, it already has us excited for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, where some of these college gymnasts are sure to make an appearance — and on which Chiles has already set her sights [8].
