Olympian Jordan Chiles Pays Tribute to Prince In New Routine

Source: Katharine Lotze / Getty

Olympic gold medalist Jordan Chiles has introduced a new routine. After winning a gold medal with the U.S. gymnastics team and being a part of one of the most iconic moments in the sport when Simone Biles, a Brazilian gymnast, became the first all-Black Olympics gymnastic podium, she’s now competing for UCLA.

For her debut performance this year, she surprised many by incorporating Prince’s music into her routine. The 23-year-old hasn’t previously come out as a Prince fan, but her floor exercise included a remixed version of his hit song “Let’s Go Crazy,” which also references his song ‘Kiss.’

She also wore a purple leotard, a color Prince embraced in his life, career and his first movie, Purple Rain, the soundtrack that the song is on. Since all of it was released in 1984 years before Chiles was born, we can only imagine she knows a Prince fan who’s exposed her to his music. Prince passed away in 2016, before he could see Chiles’ homage to his music. But he supported female athletes, playing a private show the Minnesota Lynx in 2015 when they won one of their four WNBA titles.

Chiles and the Bruins gymnastics team were competing in their season opener at the American Gold Women’s Collegiate Classic vs. No. 19 Oregon State and No. 4 California. Chiles’ events were floor exercise, vault and uneven parallel bars. Though she scored a 9.90 on bars and vault, it wasn’t enough to get her team a victory. The Bruins finished last.

Chiles appears to be getting over the disappointment of losing her bronze medal in the Olympic floor exercise competition to Romanian gymnast Ana Bǎrbosu, who was awarded the medal on a technicality. After Chiles’ coach, Cecile Landi, successfully protested the original score, which left her off the podium, Chiles was initially given the medal. That’s what led to the historic all-Black podium. But Olympic authorities then declared that Chiles’ coach hadn’t registered the protest in time, although video evidence proved she had.

Bǎrbosu was given the bronze at a ceremony in Budapest. Chiles has not returned the bronze she was awarded at the Games, at least not that she’s revealed publicly. She has announced that her memoir I’m That Girl is coming this spring with a forward written by Simone Biles. In the book, she’ll talk more about the decision to strip her of her medal and how that impacted her.

Watch below as she talks to Hoda Kotb late last year about her Olympic experience and being trolled online.