When you talk of friendship goals, Jordan Chiles and Simone Biles are a duo that comes to mind. Whether supporting each other in controversy or injury, the two have done it all. In 2018, when Chiles was struggling mentally, physically, and emotionally, she started doubting herself and wondering if gymnastics still had a place for her. However, it was Simone who gave Chiles hope: “It was my best friend Simone who gave me hope and a new path to my dream when I was about to give it up.” Clearly, the duo is very close! So much so that whenever Chiles hears something heartfelt, she thinks it has come from Biles.
Recently, when asked who could have said: “I can’t say enough about the unique person she is to be able to handle everything on her plate and handle it with so much excellence. It inspires me every single day. When I wake up tired, I look at her, and the day before it looked like, and I’m like, You know what? I got this,” Chiles thought of her best friend. It was not Biles, but Janelle McDonald, her UCLA head coach, who had said this. We’re glad Simone gave hope to Jordan because her tweet helped UCLA break a record.
“Enjoy the best show, one more time, at Pauley Pavilion,” wrote Jordan Chiles on X to encourage the crowd to bid farewell to the UCLA seniors. Fans listened. A whopping 12,918 people showed up at the arena during the NCAA meet against Stanford on March 9, 2025, just about 800 fans shy of total capacity. In a one-on-one talk with Aj’a Wilson in a Bleacher Report exclusive, the UCLA gymnast reflected on the record her tweet led to.
She said, “Well, first off, the record is crazy.” This was the largest audience UCLA Gymnastics has ever had. Jordan herself is a fan of fans, and at the same time, she is not. She further added, “I really do pay attention to the crowd, but I don’t at the same time. I pay attention when it’s time for me to, like, get the crowd hyped, but then other than that, I kind of just everything’s a blur.” When in the game, she is focused, so she did notice fans showing up on her call.
In 2019, 12,907 fans attended a meet at Pauley; this record was shattered in March. The Olympian, reflecting on broken records, drew parallels from LSU and OU and said, “Knowing that we had first, we beat the area record. Like, we’re not like an LSU, we’re not like an OU, but yet we are because we have a competitive mind, we are known to be great, and we leave legacies. And you know, that’s something that we do have the most amazing floor party for a reason.” The likes of Chae Campbell, Brooklyn Moors, and Chiles herself make a great team on the floor. Now, why did she make the tweet?
“I put on Twitter the reason why I wanted people to come and show out is that not only is this entertainment, but it’s something that I want the world to see, as in college, it’s the same gymnastics you would see in Team USA. It’s the same gymnastics you would see at, you know, a US Championship.” The two-time Olympic medalist believes that in college gymnastics is on the same level as the international ones. And why not? Every Olympian has once been here. At the college level, it is still the “flipping and we’re doing all these crazy things, so why not enjoy it? We get to represent UCLA, one of the number one schools in the nation like It’s UCLA, so why not come and have fun?” Coming to UCLA, it was also for her UCLA seniors that she did this.
The 23-year-old said, “It was senior night I wanted the seniors to feel special and do everything they could do in front of an amazing crowd.” She also told what her next audience goal is, “I knew at some point in my career at UCLA we were going to have a record at least a sold-out Pauley like I wanted it to happen at some point,” she said.
She just needs to bring in 800 more next time, and for that to happen, she hopes that “more people will come out and give us the opportunity to show you that we are as big as any other school and that we want to continue to shine and inspire.” She already did this in the meet against Stanford.
The Dream Debut for Jordan Chiles and UCLA
What a debut for the UCLA women’s gymnastics team and the Paris Gold Medalist!!! In January 2025, it was their first time in the Big Ten. It was also the first time for Jordan Chiles at UCLA. Cut to March 2025, who wins the Big Ten conference? UCLA. The 2025 season has been like a dream for the team. First, they won the regular season with a streak of 9-0, which is a conference record, and then they created another record with their Big Ten win. UCLA’s score of 198.450 is the highest team score in Big Ten Championship history.
Michigan State took the lead early in the meet with a 49.500 on beam in the first rotation, 49.600 on the floor in the second rotation, and 49.575 on vault in the third rotation. UCLA wasn’t far behind. They started the meet with a season-high-tying 49.350 on vault. The team scored 49.550 after all six competitors scored 9.900 or higher on uneven bars. The 49.750 on the balance beam brought the Bruins right next to the Spartans, and then the 49.750 on the balance beam sealed the deal.
Jordan Chiles made her 2025 UCLA debut with a perfect 10; she ended her 2025 season with a perfect 10. Brooklyn Moors didn’t shy away from a perfect 10 either, and neither did Ciena Alipio. UCLA Head Gymnastics Coach Janelle McDonald was voted the Big Ten Coach of the Year, the first conference head coach honor of her career. Moors’ and Alipio’s 10s were the first of their careers, and Chiles’ was her season’s third and eleventh of her career. The Bruins made history by becoming the first Big Ten team with three different perfect 10 scorers in the same meet. Such a dominating performance makes you wonder, what did they do differently this year?
