Getty Jordan Chiles of Team United States looks on before competing on balance beam during Women's Qualification on day two of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Gymnastics Centre on July 25, 2021.
Gymnast Jordan Chiles is competing in her first Olympic games this summer and she’s looking to make a major impact as the U.S. Women’s Team goes for gold.
Chiles, 20, is making a name for herself not just as Simone Biles‘ best friend, but as an elite competitor. As she performs on all four apparatuses during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, viewers want to know more about her background and the gymnast’s life outside the gym.
Born in Tualatin, Oregon, but lists Vancouver, Washington as home, Chiles deferred her attendance at UCLA to focus on her training. She relocated to Spring, Texas in mid-2019 to train with coaches Cecile and Laurent Landi alongside Biles at the World Championship Centre, the gym Biles’ family owns.
Chiles is the youngest of five siblings, and her parents, Gina and Timothy Chiles, named her after NBA legend Michael Jordan. As for Chiles’ ethnicity, the American gymnast is of mixed race. While her father, Timothy Chiles, is Black, her mother Gina, whose maiden named is Velasquez, is not.
Gina Chiles, refers to her three daughters as “My black queens” on Instagram.
Chiles Proudly Created the Melanin Drip Clothing. Co
After coronavirus delayed the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Chiles started her own Melanin Drip Clothing Co., per The New York Times, which sells hoodies with words “Beautiful, Black & Brilliant” emblazoned on the front.
On Instagram, Chiles has modeled the black hoodie that reads, “Black Royalty,” and a navy blue sweatshirt that reads, “Melanin Queen.”
Chiles is an outspoken advocate for Black women. Last year, she post a photo as part of an Instagram challenge and wrote the following message of empowerment:
Don’t Love Me For What I Do.. Love Me For Who I Am. We are BLACK WOMEN!….. We build …. We don’t tear down other BLACK WOMEN! …. We have felt the pain of being torn down and we have decided we will be deliberate about building others! If I didn’t tag you, please don’t be offended. I tried to pick people I thought would do this challenge!! All too often, us women find it easier to criticize each other, instead of building each other up. With all the negativity going around let’s do something positive!!
Timothy Chiles Works as a Pastor, Gina Chiles Is Going to Federal Prison for Wire Fraud
While Chiles’ father works as a senior pastor at the According to His World Worship Center, per his Linkedin profile, her mother, who ran a commercial properties management business, will soon be heading to federal prison.
Gina Chiles admitted to stealing from her clients and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on personal expenses through her commercial properties management business, Inspire Vision Property Management LLC, CBS 42 reported. She “pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, and was sentenced to federal prison for one year and one day.”
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