Paris 2024: US gymnast Chiles' long journey back to Oly is rooted in joy

Jordan Chiles still remembers the first time someone handed her a ribbon for something she did at a gymnastics meet.

She was maybe 7 or 8 and a Level 4, the entry point to competition for the thousands of kids who take up the sport.

The details of what Chiles did that day are fuzzy at best. The jolt of adrenaline that sprinted through her as she caressed the first of what has become countless gold ribbons is not.

I was like, Oh, this is what it feels like to win? Okay, I got this. This is cool,' Chiles said.

It still is, only Chiles' definition of winning has evolved nearly two decades after that initial blush with success.

Sure, she remains intensely competitive, a trait Chiles says she inherited from her mother Gina. Yet Chiles realized a while ago the competition she faces whenever she steps onto the podium doesn't come from the outside, but from within.

When Chiles walks into Bercy Arena in Paris on July 28 to begin a second trip to the Olympics very few outside of her inner