"Not typical to see women of color who have curves doing our sport"- Jordan Chiles shares anecdote of finding confidence in her body

Jordan Chiles talked about competing as a Black gymnast and how she struggled to fit in the norm throughout her life. The Olympian also shared that she felt confident in her authentic self as she modeled for the 2025 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.

Chiles competes as a woman of color in a traditionally white-dominated sport. With her stories of past struggles and self-expression, she inspires the up-and-coming generation of young girls to embrace themselves and find their voices despite the constant scrutiny. Despite the ace gymnast struggling with eating issues and body image in her early gymnastics days, she is making waves as the Sports Illustrated's swimsuit cover girl in the 2025 edition.

Recently, she joined Olivia Dunne, Lauren Chan, and Salma Hayek on the panel of the Swimsuit Social Club. She discussed how doing gymnastics as a Black woman was not conventional, but the scenario changed when more women like her paved the way.

"As a gymnast, obviously I'm a woman of color so it's not typical to see women of color who have curves and all this stuff doing our sport but now that we have people who have been able to you know pave that way and give us this ability to enjoy what we're doing," she said.

The 23-year-old then talked about feeling confident after putting on the swimwear for the SI shoot since elite gymnastics always demanded her to be a certain way.

"I had to put my first swimsuit on and I looked at myself and I said wow this is the first time in 22 years that I was actually able to feel confident and embrace myself because it's it's a whole different story like growing up we had to look a certain way our hair had to be a certain way the way that we you know had to attend things it was something that we as gymnasts had to embrace but we never had the ability to use our voice..," Chiles added.

Jordan Chiles was a member of the gold-winning US women's gymnastics team at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Jordan Chiles opened up about bronze medal heartbreak at the 2024 Paris Olympics

Jordan Chiles at the 2025 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championships - (Source: Getty)

Jordan Chiles contributed scores to the US team's pole finish and earned the bronze in the floor exercise. However, the bronze medal was stripped after the Romanian Gymnastics Federation and CAS concluded that there was an unfair score upgrade in the floor finals. Chiles has been vocal about her mental struggles since then and how she found her way back up with a strong mindset and personality.

In conversation with Maire Claire magazine, she said:

"That was the hardest thing that I ever had to do [accept the result] within my life. I do something great, it always gets stripped. Why does it happen to me, and the only reason why it happens to me is that I am a strong, independent, encouraging woman, and no matter what circumstance I get to be put into, the next thing that is given to me will only get to be better."

Jordan Chiles released her debut memoir, 'I'm That Girl,' in March this year. The book chronicles the gymnast's life and gymnastics journey.