"My sport saved my life" - Jordan Chiles makes her feelings known about her struggles with ADHD since a young age

Olympic champion Jordan Chiles has been extremely vocal about her aspirations and challenges. Despite losing the Olympic bronze medal to a technicality, the 23-year-old gymnast has not given up yet.

A few days before she contributed to the UCLA Bruins' championship victory in the Big Ten Regular Season 2025, Chiles gave an interview to the web portal The Cut. The American gymnast opened up about her struggles with ADHD and how gymnastics helped her overcome it.

"My sport saved my life. I had really, really bad ADHD when I was younger, and gymnastics helped me calm down. I fell in love with flipping around and doing crazy things. I always had a very spontaneous mind. At a young age, we would go camping and I’d be jumping off cliffs into the water. Did I think I was going to be somebody when I was older? 100 percent. Did I think it was going to be this way? No, not at all," said Chiles.

Jordan Chiles represents the UCLA Bruins at the NCAA Championships. After temporarily staying away, Chiles returned to the collegiate circuit for the 2025 season.

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Jordan Chiles talks about the moment when she was stripped of her bronze medal

Jordan Chiles opens up on her bronze medal being revoked [Image Source: Getty]

Paris Olympics was a fantastic experience for Team USA regarding artistic gymnastics. But for Jordan Chiles, it was different. The 23-year-old gymnast recently opened up about when she was stripped of her bronze medal in the floor exercise event.

In her memoir "I'm that Girl: Living the Power of my Dreams", Chiles mentioned:

“And therefore, they are overturning the inquiry. That drops Jordan back down to fifth place. Ana will take the medal, and Sabrina will take fourth place. Suddenly, the car went quiet."

“I’m surprised everyone couldn’t hear the sound of my heart breaking, because it absolutely did, there in that back seat. My brain stopped even functioning within my body. Somewhere faraway, I could see my mom shaking her head, and hear her saying “Why? Why!” she added.

Chiles had contributed to Team USA's gold medal-winning performance in the team-all-around event at the Paris Olympics. However, during the individual floor exercise finals, she was placed fifth initially. When her coach Cecile Landi appealed for an inquiry, it was found that Jordan Chiles wasn't rewarded for her execution skills, and her scores were updated, giving her the bronze medal.

However, after multiple protests by the Romanian authorities, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said in their verdict that Chiles' inquiry was submitted beyond the stipulated time. As a result, the bronze medal would be restored to the original winner, Ana Barbosu of Romania.