OKLAHOMA CITY — Just days after Jordan Chiles became the NCAA champion on floor in the spring of 2023, she already knew what music she wanted to use for her next collegiate routine. She could even envision the choreography and some of the moves.
There was just one tiny issue.
Chiles wasn’t sure if she would ever get that chance.
She was planning on taking the 2024 season off to focus on making the Olympic team, and she didn’t know what the future held beyond that. She simply wasn’t sure if returning to UCLA for her delayed junior season was in the cards.
But after Chiles, now 23, helped Team USA win gold in Paris, and was unwittingly at the center of a global controversy for the bronze medal on floor that remains in litigation, she decided her collegiate career wasn’t over. And after starring in the Gold Over America Tour alongside her Olympic teammates in the fall, Chiles made her official return to Westwood last month.
It didn’t take her long to reclaim her spot as one of the NCAA’s best and most dynamic athletes.
On Saturday, during the Bruins’ second meet of the season and less than two weeks after finalizing the routine with assistant coach BJ Das, Chiles went almost immediately viral with her Prince-themed performance at the Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad. She received a near-perfect 9.975 score, for a routine filled with difficult tumbling and intricate and contagious choreography.
JORDAN CHILES PUT ON A SHOW 🤩 pic.twitter.com/m5ThqTs1zr
— espnW (@espnW) January 12, 2025
“Honestly, when we started working on this, I thought, ‘If I’m coming back, I want to come back with a banger,'” Chiles told ESPN. “I don’t want to come back and be like, ‘Oh hey guys, I am back.’ No, I want to come back with something that people are going to enjoy. Artistic gymnastics is very known for just the gymnastics part, and I wanted to be able to bring the art back into the sport, and so I felt like Prince was the best thing to do for that. Who wouldn’t want to be able to sit and eat their popcorn at a gymnastics meet and feel like you’re at his concert?”
There wasn’t much left for Chiles to achieve at the NCAA level before coming back.
During her sophomore season, she won the individual NCAA title on floor and uneven bars, and finished as the all-around runner-up. In two years at the college level, she was a nine-time All-American and received eight perfect 10.0 scores. Not to mention, she’s now won multiple Olympic medals and is a three-time world medalist.
But despite all of that, in addition to her desire to finish her degree, there was something pulling Chiles back and she simply couldn’t shake it.
“I had unfinished business,” Chiles said. “I know you’re probably thinking, ‘Jordan, you have NCAA titles, what do you have left to prove?’ But I want to be able to win a natty with this team and at least come back with individual titles as well. I felt like there was something missing and I knew my story wasn’t over.
“Yes, I’ve done a lot within UCLA already, but I feel like there’s just things that I could kind of show to UCLA and kind of cherish [the experience] a little more. I want to be able to leave a legacy at UCLA, just like a bunch of my other teammates have and just to continue to represent in the way that I can.”
But while the rest of her Bruin teammates were training together in the fall on campus, Chiles was traveling across the country on tour. She did stop by on a few occasions when she had time off, but she was hardly able to give her college routines as much attention as most of her peers. But because she and Das had started talking about her floor routine more than a year-and-a-half prior, they were able to start brainstorming before Chiles was actually back.
Her 2023 routine had been set to 1990s hip hop and been a clear fan favorite. Chiles felt like she could take her 2025 edition back even further and “give the older generation something they can enjoy.” Her uncle had initially introduced her to Prince’s music when she was younger and she even consulted with her parents to see what they thought about the choice.
They knew it would be well received.
“I was like, ‘Are you sure this is going to be something?'” Chiles said about the conversation. “And they were like, ‘Yes, 100 percent, yes.'”
Set to a medley of Prince’s hits, Chiles and Das watched YouTube clips of Prince’s performances to determine what moves to use and exactly at what specific beats. Chiles returned to campus ahead of “Meet the Bruins” on Dec. 14. While her teammates were showing off their new routines, Chiles performed parts of her elite routine. Then she formally got to work.
It took all of three days for Chiles and Das to put it together. By the end of that week — with a lot of tweaks and training for Chiles to get her endurance back to a performance-ready level — it was mostly complete. After a brief holiday break, the two finalized the routine, just two days before UCLA’s first meet against California and Oregon State on Jan. 4.
“I’m a really fast learner,” Chiles said about the abbreviated timetable. “It was no biggie that I got my whole routine in three days.”
After the first meet, in which UCLA came in third, Chiles couldn’t figure out why her phone was suddenly blowing up with alerts. But she soon figured out the Bruins team account had shared the video of her routine. She was nervous some might criticize her music choice but she was thrilled to find there was no such feedback. Instead everything she saw was positive — a rarity for online discourse in 2025 — and fans seemed to love the routine.
Because of the early reception, she was excited to perform it in Oklahoma City and hoped fans would dance and even sing along.
“It’s like when you go to a concert and because you’ve already seen so many TikToks [from the tour] you know what song they’re about to perform,” Chiles said. “It’s like everyone knows what’s coming and so everyone is collectively excited about it. For me, that puts me at ease a little bit because it won’t just be silent [from the fans] in the beginning and hopefully there will be a lot of energy from the start.”
In a meet the team dedicated to those impacted by the wildfires in Los Angeles, the Bruins won their session over Kentucky, Ohio State and Arkansas with a 197.550 and Chiles won the floor title. It didn’t take long for the routine to gain traction online.
“The choreography, I’m exhausted watching this routine,” said former gymnast John Roethlisberger on the ESPN broadcast. “Just start to finish, the performance quality [is] next level.”
“That was so fun,” added six-time Olympic medalist Aly Raisman.
But while Chiles is honored to “represent Purple Rain and everything about that,” her biggest goal remains to help the No. 11-ranked UCLA win a team championship this season. After several challenging years for the program, she believes the team is capable of doing so. Chiles said she’s been impressed by what she’s seen in practice and by the closeness and cohesiveness of everyone on the team.
Head coach Janelle McDonald thinks Chiles is a big reason why the team has such potential — and is a key component to the team’s inclusive and supportive culture.
“She’s only been back with us for a few weeks, but she has this ability to just elevate the room around her,” McDonald told ESPN on Friday. “She brings this energy and this passion to the table each and every day that inspires the people around her. And it’s really cool this year seeing that she’s taken all the experiences that she’s had and brought it in as a leadership role. I’ve seen all these moments over the last few weeks where she’s kind of stepped over and had conversations with people to help their mindset and their confidence.
“It’s a testament to her character and her love for the sport and this team that she wants to come and make this good transition and make a positive impact right out of the gate.”
