{"id":136171,"date":"2026-01-16T13:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T13:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/136171\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T13:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T13:05:08","slug":"jordan-chiles-sees-ucla-gymnastics-as-a-national-title-contender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/136171\/","title":{"rendered":"Jordan Chiles sees UCLA gymnastics as a national title contender"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two meets into the season, ninth-ranked UCLA gymnastics<\/a> has set an unforgiving standard for execution. They know their routines must be virtually perfect in order to avoid reductions from the judges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s really where our mindset is at,\u201d UCLA coach Janelle McDonald<\/a> said. \u201cWe want to continue to learn and grow from the things that we\u2019ve already experienced and really put in the work to be the best team that we\u2019re capable of being.\u201d<\/p>\n

As they prepare to face Nebraska in their home opener at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday, McDonald said the Bruins are focusing on the small details within their routines and landings. Facing some of the nation\u2019s top teams during a quad meet in Utah last week \u2014 where UCLA finished third<\/a> behind defending national champion Oklahoma and No. 2 Louisiana State \u2014 set the tone for what is expected to be a challenging season for the Bruins.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of us are locked in how we want to be,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cIt\u2019s a really good test early in the season to have great competition across the board at a meet but also to be able to kind of see where you\u2019re at and where we need to continue to build, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Bruins can reach and sustain their potential, senior star Jordan Chiles<\/a> is confident UCLA could challenge for a national title.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe talent that I see during practices is just remarkable,\u201d Chiles said. \u201cEvery girl has their own way of showcasing that and it\u2019s cool to know that our personalities and our talents get to collide together because it\u2019s magical in the gym.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to keep pushing and keep pushing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Building for the future<\/p>\n

With such a young team, McDonald wants her freshmen to get as much experience as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst few meets of the year, we really wanted to have a lot of takeaways to build from and to learn from,\u201d she said. \u201cI saw some really great adjustments from week one to week two in how we handle our nerves, how we handle the warmups, how we show up for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

She attributes that development to a personalized coaching approach that emphasizes strong communication with each gymnast.<\/p>\n

Chiles remains focused on the team<\/p>\n

Chiles secured her second straight Big Ten Gymnast of the Week after posting a 39.575 all-around score in Utah. While she is the top-ranked gymnast in the nation, her focus remains on helping the team win.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe loves that she gets to do the sport she loves with the people that have her back every step of the way,\u201d McDonald said.<\/p>\n

During the offseason, Chiles appeared on ABC\u2019s \u201cDancing with the Stars,\u201d and finished third<\/a>. Despite her very busy schedule then, she still practiced with the team every day.<\/p>\n

After finishing second in the nation last season, Chiles is extra motivated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s fuel in my body that I just want the world to understand that the Bruins didn\u2019t come to play this year,\u201d Chiles said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of time when that spark is going to finally ignite and people are gonna be very shocked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are just showing you bits and pieces with every meet that you see, but when it\u2019s time to really shine and go out there and do what we need to do, we\u2019re gonna do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two meets into the season, ninth-ranked UCLA gymnastics has set an unforgiving standard for execution. They know their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[8932,2134,19611,66621,48,52,51,47,50,49,34672,1524,69391,39708,69392,18170,278,1092,69393,8843,430],"class_list":["post-136171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-bruins","tag-good-team","tag-gymnast","tag-jordan-chiles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mcdonald","tag-nation","tag-national-title-contender","tag-pauley-pavilion","tag-quad-meet","tag-routine","tag-season","tag-ucla","tag-ucla-gymnastic","tag-way","tag-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}