Jordan Chiles is asked for a selfie on the UCLA campus

After a year of history-making achievements and making waves around the world, school is back at it Jordan Chiles.

In an exclusive interview with Us WeeklyThe 23-year-old Team USA gymnast — who got a gold medal in the women’s team competition at The 2024 Paris Olympics — discussed what her life will look like as she prepares to return to UCLA for the 2025 gymnastics season.

“There’s a bit of a shift,” said Chiles, who spoke to us through her partnership with Bath & Body Works. “I think that by being able to separate my normal life from my sports life, I can kind of navigate in a different way. I like being able to be myself and be the person that I am because I can really walk into a room and say, “I’m just a normal person.” I’m not going to make you bow to me or anything. Because there is no need.”

Chiles will return for his junior season at UCLA after finishing the 2024 season to prepare for the Olympics. Ever since he started school, Chiles has vowed to maintain as much normality as possible.

Related: Jordan Chiles describes ‘tough’ loss of bronze medal in emotional interview

Jordan Chiles is ready to speak her truth after being stripped of her Olympic bronze medal. “It’s been really, really hard just to understand everything that’s going on,” Chiles, 23, said during a Monday, Nov. 11 appearance on Today, her first live TV interview since the 2024 Paris Olympics. “Now I have finally succeeded (…)

“I honestly told myself when I started my freshman year when I went to school that I was just a normal kid going to campus,” she explained. “I literally told my teammates, I told people in my classes, ‘Just treat me like a normal student. Yeah, I went to the Olympics and all that stuff, but I’m still like you guys. I’m getting an education, I’m getting a degree.”

Chiles previously represented Team USA at the 2020 Summer Olympics. in Tokyo, winning a team silver medal.

“They’re trying and I really appreciate that,” Chiles said of his fellow Bruins. “I actually meet some people when I’m walking around and they say, ‘Hey, can I take a picture?'” Yes, one hundred percent.

Chiles said this year will be “different” because of her last Olympics, and although she noted that all of her classes are online, she’s still ready to be chased.

“Usually the only reason I have to go to college is for practice,” she said. “It’s normal for me because I wanted it to be. But probably for others it might be like, “Oh my gosh, I have this guy on campus. This is madness. She goes to my school.

The UCLA Bruins gymnastics team opens its 2025 season on January 11.

Meanwhile, Chiles is partnering with Bath & Body Works on Candle Day — celebrated on Friday, Dec. 6 — when customers can start buying the brand’s candles for $9.95.

“Bath and Body Works has been with me since I was little,” Chiles recalls. “It was something that, when I walked into the house, I always knew that my mother had a candle lit. Especially since her favorite scent was limoncello.

For more information on Bath & Body Works Candle Day, click here.