NEW YORK — Vancouver gymnast Jordan Chiles felt a wave of emotions when she won the bronze medal during the individual floor exercise finals at the Olympics on Monday.
"There was so many emotions going through my body in that moment because again, yes, there was a lot of things happening between me not being on the podium to me being on the podium," Chiles told Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie in an interview on TODAY on Thursday.
Chiles appeared to have missed out on a medal after the final on Monday, having initially received a 13.666 to put her in fifth place. But after a few minutes, her total jumped by 0.1 when she filed an inquiry about the difficulty component of her score. That was enough to catapult her into third place to win the bronze. Her U.S. teammates Jade Carey and Simone Biles were visibly excited for Chiles.
"I was crying, Jade was, everybody was in shock," she said, recalling the moment she learned she won her first individual Olympic medal. "Everybody was crying and those were true emotions. That was really to the heart."
Kotb talked about Biles' interview on TODAY earlier in the week, and how Biles said she started "bawling" after Chiles' achievement. Chiles recounted that moment and shared how she realized how much support her teammate has shown her.
"That was definitely a great moment to have and as much as Simone has done so much for me, I feel like in that moment, I realized that," she said.
Chiles also opened up about her close relationship with Biles and called her a "big sister."
"I think just knowing and understanding that the bond that we’ve brought together, even throughout the last two years of everything that’s been happening, I think the biggest thing was we’re by each other’s side the whole time," Chiles said. "I appreciate everything that she’s done for me … I have no words.”
The gymnastics superstar also announced in video on X that she is recommitting to UCLA for her last two years of college. Chiles left school this year to focus on training for the Olympics.
"UCLA, here I come! Finally!" she said in the video.
Chiles is now back in the U.S. with a total of two medals: one bronze and one gold.
"I think the biggest thing is just always understanding not to doubt yourself and just to let everything ride out how it’s supposed to be," Chiles said on Thursday.
