For Jordan Chiles, Olympic medals, TV stardom, and red carpets were all once a part of her dreams. “As a little kid, I always had [imaginative] dreams,” Chiles tells Her Campus in an exclusive interview at Her Conference 2026. Now, those dreams are just the beginning of her story.
The gymnast-turned-dancer–turned-fashion-icon took the stage as one of the keynote speakers at the event held in New York City on June 27, letting a room of 1,000 Gen Z women in on how she does it all. “I knew I was going to be an entertainer at some point in my life,” Chiles says. “Now, I’m so happy that I have a sport that indulges in that. We get to entertain 24/7.”
Chiles competed in the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games, and since then, her professional interests have broadened. She was a finalist in Season 34 of Dancing With the Stars, she’s partnered with fashion brands like Nike and Kim Shui, and she’s accumulated over 2.6 million followers across her social platforms thanks to her infectious energy and joy. “Going into these other worlds, whether it’s fashion, whether it’s the entertainment world, whether it’s me hanging out with musicians or artists, I enjoy that,” Chiles says. “It’s a different part of me that I’m happy people get to see.”
While Chiles’s path isn’t traditional, she’s proud of everything she’s accomplished. For other people paving an untraditional path, Chiles says, “If you have the talent and you have the opportunity, go for it.” According to her, a good support system and big dreams are key to writing your own story. “How I see my life is like a puzzle,” she says. “You pick up a puzzle piece, right? And you’re trying to fit it in. If it fits, then perfect. We keep pushing. If it doesn’t fit, pick up another piece. Do the exact same thing. So it’s your life, your story, your picture. Do what you want to do.”
Although she’s at the top of the entertainment world, the day-to-day still exists. “At the end of the day, this is what I do. I work. I’m like everybody else. I wake up, and I have to go do things and answer emails,” Chiles says. She has to get it done, though, and credits her tough discipline to gymnastics. “If I was able to do that flip on a four-inch piece of wood, swing from uneven bars, and do hard tumbling, then I can go into my life and understand, yes, I’m going to have to learn about [things like] taxes, but it’s OK,” says Chiles. “We’ve done hard things.”
All of that hard work and discipline calls for some major relaxation. “What I’ve been doing is jam-packing [work into] at least two weeks or three weeks, and then taking a vacation to really just let go, and then coming back and working,” Chiles says. Thankfully, that work is more manageable after taking a trip — her most recent destinations were Mexico and Fiji.
Chiles is planning to add new and unexpected puzzle pieces to her life for a very long time. “There are a lot of things that I would love to see [for myself] in the next 80 years,” she says, “because I believe I can live past 100.” But as for now, there’s not much set in stone. “Who knows what Jordan does? I’m very spontaneous. I’m very out there. I like to allow myself to simmer and wet my feet a little before I fully indulge in it. So we’ll see what happens, I don’t know. You may see me in a movie, you may see me on a TV show, you may see me on other magazine covers, or at fashion shows.” As for the 2028 Olympics, Chiles is still undecided on whether she’ll compete. “If I do 2028, I want it to do it for me,” she says.Â
Gymnastics gave Chiles an incredible foundation, and now, it’s just a matter of building on it. “My sport did so much for me to get to this point. So why not live to the best of my potential?” Chiles says. “I know how to fix myself up, be prepared, and see what is ahead of me. And so, I go after it.”