On Sunday night, we found out who would be on the five-member team selected to represent Team USA in women’s artistic gymnastics at the 2024 Summer Olympic in Paris, France. One of those five was 2020 Olympian Jordan Chiles.
Chiles joined fellow veterans Simone Biles, Jade Carey, Suni Lee, and first-year senior Hezly Rivera to make the team. She overcame some pretty significant injuries to make it back to her second Olympic Games.
The lead-up to the team selection was rife with injuries to contenders, especially in the final stages. Just last week, near locks in Skye Blakely and Shilese Jones had to pull out due to injury, and serious contender Kayla DiCello also had to withdraw from Olympic Trials. While gymnastics is certainly a sport that sees its fair share of difficult injuries, it was jarring for many to see so many injuries to key contenders within approximately 48 hours of each other.
Those three weren’t the only ones that had injury concerns, though. Turns out, Jordan Chiles was battling significant injuries, as well.
“Jordan Chiles, in true hockey player fashion, said today that she has a partial tear in the LCL in her knee and a bone bruise that turned into a fractured tibia/fibula. Suffered in the spring prepping for Classic,” Associated Press sports reporter Will Graves tweeted out on Monday.
The Core Hydration Classics were back in May, meaning she’s been dealing with this injury for at least six weeks and likely much longer. When you consider the amount of intense daily training Jordan Chiles had to do to make the team, it’s pretty inspiring. She must have pushed through a lot of pain.
Now, she has to stay healthy for another month. The women’s gymnastics competition in Paris runs from July 28 to August 5.