Jordan Chiles’ Memoir Details the Racism She Recognized In Gymnastics At Just 7

By Kyra Alessandrini, Blavity

Jordan Chiles is getting real about her experiences with racism in gymnastics in her forthcoming memoir I’m That Girl: Living the Power of My Dreams, which is slated for release this Friday. The 23-year-old athlete said she started noticing a difference in treatment from judges when she was just 7 years old. Chiles started gymnastics when she was 6.

“The first time that I finally realized that I wasn’t going to be able to be a typical athlete was the judging,” she says in the memoir, according to People. “I’m literally doing almost the exact same thing as any other person, but why am I not getting the same scores?”

As she grew up, she noticed the disparity between her and her peers only deepened. 

“Everything was different,” Chiles said. “[Judges] didn’t know what to do with [me] because it was like, ‘She’s talented, yes, but she’s curvy,’ or people would tell me that I ‘look like a man’ or ‘you shouldn’t be here’ or ‘you don’t deserve to be in the sport.’”

The gymnast points to two role models while growing up. Shawn Johnson had a similar body type and Dominique Dawes was the only Black gymnast Chiles grew up watching.

Not only has Chiles noticed racism within the sport, she says judgment also came from social media.

“‘Why are these people telling me all these things when I’m literally doing the exact same thing as everybody else?’” she asked herself about her experience online. “It was definitely something I had to push past.”

Blavity has more information.

The treatment Black children receive is sometimes due to adultification bias.

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