Jordan Chiles has always been a standout.
But in her fourth and final season with the Bruins, the nation’s No. 1 all-arounder is going for something greater.
Breaking the NCAA perfect 10 record.
“I have a goal – I want to be where Trinity (Florida alumnus Trinity Thomas) was, and Kyla (UCLA alumna Kyla Ross),” Chiles said. “I want to break the record.”
Chiles recorded four perfect 10s across six meets this season, bringing her career total to 15 – more than halfway to the NCAA record of 28, held by Thomas, former UCLA gymnast Jamie Dantzscher and former Kentucky gymnast Jenny Hansen.
No one has surpassed 14 perfect 10s in a season – but if anyone is poised to break that record, it’s Chiles in her 2026 form.
Chiles, who joined the Bruins in 2022 and took the 2024 season off to train for the Paris Olympics, continues to improve in her final year of NCAA competition.
The senior recorded her first 10.000 on vault Jan. 17, courtesy of a Yurchenko double full – which boasts a 10.0 start value.
“She’s been training her double full phenomenal really all through season – that’s why we went down this road with the double full this year because it was so consistent, and it really doesn’t have built-in deductions when she does it so cleanly,” said coach Janelle McDonald after the Bruins’ Jan. 17 meet. “It was very special to see her nail it here today.”
Chiles also posted a 9.975 on beam – the only event she has yet to achieve perfection on – on Jan. 3 and 17, tying a career-high score set in her freshman year. Only two Bruins, Kyla Ross and Kristen Maloney – part of the 14 NCAA gymnasts total – have completed the so-called “gym slam” and reached perfection on every event.
But, according to McDonald, Chiles may be close to joining Ross and her elite company.
“It’s coming,” McDonald said. “She’s really intentional about the work she puts in.”
Chiles, a 2020 Tokyo and 2024 Paris Olympian, said life outside the gym – which included publishing her first memoir and competing on “Dancing with the Stars” – fueled her unprecedented performance this season.
She took third place alongside partner Ezra Sosa on “Dancing with the Stars” – an experience Chiles said allowed her to show sides of herself outside of gymnastics. The show, Chiles added, asked her to compete three times before this season.
“I don’t want gymnastics to be the only thing people see me as,” Chiles said. “I’m happy now that I had that opportunity, and now I can keep pushing forward. There is more to Jordan. There are more sides of who Jordan is, and I want people to see that.”
Chiles also gained national media attention in January when a Swiss court partially granted her appeal to regain her Olympic bronze medal, sending the case back to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to consider new audiovisual evidence. The ruling came nearly a year and a half after the previous decision that stripped Chiles of the medal.
The senior – who also earned Olympic gold and silver medals from her contributions to the U.S. team – said the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics are always on her mind.
But finishing out her senior year, she added, remains her top priority.
“That’s the question that people are going to continue to ask me – ‘Oh, is she going to come back? What’s ‘28 looking like?’” Chiles said. “We’ll see what happens. … Right now, my brain is just focusing on senior year.”
[Related: Jordan Chiles’ Olympic bronze medal appeal must proceed, Swiss court rules]
Beyond breaking records, Chiles said her goal is to walk away from NCAA gymnastics having made a mark on the sport’s culture.
Chiles closed UCLA’s meet versus Minnesota on Saturday – located in Minneapolis where federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens, Alex Pretti and Reneé Good last month amid surging immigration enforcement activity – by telling the audience that she stood with the city. Chiles performed her 2025 routine inspired by Prince – a Minneapolis native – for the event.
The crowd – dominated by Golden Gophers fans – erupted in cheers when Chiles earned a perfect 10.
“My biggest thing that I hope people remember – not just as a teammate or a leader, but – that I left a legacy within who I am as a person,” Chiles said Jan. 15. “People say I have changed the culture – whether it’s for my nails, my tattoos, the grills that I wear, my lashes, my hair – those are things that you don’t recognize unless you’re truly in it. I want people to understand that I was able to do that, and now it’s my music, it’s my floor routines, it’s the way that I really incorporate my identity.”
And, according to her teammates, Chiles has influenced the culture on the Bruins’ squad, too.
Despite having earned a perfect 10 in her third straight meet – and matching the nation-leading 39.875 all-around score she posted the previous week – Chiles opened the Bruins’ post-Washington meet press conference on Jan. 30 by praising junior Sydney Barros, saying her performance was so strong that Chiles “didn’t have to do anything today.” She did the same for senior Ciena Alipio later in the press conference.
Junior Katelyn Rosen said Chiles’ selflessness is an intrinsic part of her leadership style.
“Jordan is ‘That Girl,’” Rosen said. “Even though she had ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ and she has all of these sponsorships, this team is her No. 1 priority, and she lets us know that, not only with her words, but with her actions, too. She comes into the gym every day, doing her gymnastics, inspiring us. She’s obviously loud. She knows how to get us hyped.”
The Bruins recorded their highest finish in 2025 since Chiles joined the squad, earning the national runner-up title. The weight of finishing second, Chiles said, doesn’t add any pressure to her senior season. Rather, it contextualizes what the Bruins are capable of – which Chiles believes is winning an NCAA title.
But regardless of if the team comes out on top – or whether she joins the all-time greats on the perfect 10 records list – Chiles said she is proud of how the last four years have unfolded.
Chiles will walk away from the NCAA with at least three individual event titles and 16 All-American recognitions – and, as McDonald said, having made an indelible mark on UCLA’s program as an athlete and teammate.
“That little girl, I’m proud of you for continuing on to your dreams and fulfilling that DI scholarship that you always wanted and being a part of your dream school,” Chiles said. “I’ve been here for four years – I felt like I’ve been here for eternity – but I’m happy that I have the right people around me to uplift me.”
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