Ahead of the 2024 Olympics, gymnast Jordan Chiles is opening up about her mental health fitness — an aspect of the athlete’s overall health that she says is just as important as the physical.
For Mental Health Awareness month, Chiles teamed up with Child Mind Institute for their Mental Health Fitness campaign, an effort to destigmatize mental health by having today’s top athletes speak out about how they maintain their own. In her video, Jordan Chiles talks about how she tends to her mental health and the resources she wishes she advocated for when she was younger.
“One thing I do to stay mentally fit, especially going into the Paris Olympics, is being able to communicate how I’m feeling,” Chiles says in a short video, “whether it’s through my support system or talking to a sports psychologist, or even, at some points, being able to just relax and hang out with friends and family.”
Chiles, 23, is vying for a spot on this year’s Olympic team after competing on the silver-winning 2020 squad. She’s spoken about mental health in the past, noting the toll social media comments can take on it, and saying she and fellow Olympian Simone Biles check in on each other’s mental health.
While she now has a robust support system around her mental health, Chiles says that wasn’t always the case. When she was younger, Chiles says physical fitness was the main focus. “[Mental health] wasn’t really talked about until I got older, so having resources play a big part is definitely something that I wish I could have been able to have when I was younger,” she says. While that system is in place now, she says she wishes she spoke up sooner. “Using my voice should’ve been a huge play in making sure I was mentally ok. Yes, a girl can physically do everything, but at the end of the day, you also need to make sure you’re mentally ok.”
That’s the advice Chiles imparts on young people struggling with their mental health today: that it’s ok to ask for help.
“My best advice to a kid that is struggling with mental health is using your voice. Use your voice as loud as you can because no matter what, people are going to hear you,” she says. “It’s a good thing that we have the ability to have the ability to have a bunch of resources now that you can kind of deep dive into, whether it be your family, your friends, even a dog sometimes, or going to a psychologist to make sure you’re ok.”
