Clark County local takes home silver in Olympics

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After Olympian Simone Biles abruptly pulled out of the Toyko 2020 women’s gymnastic team final, Prairie High School alum Jordan Chiles stepped up to the occasion.

Chiles, 20, had originally planned to compete in the vault and floor events, but took over the balance beam and uneven bars with Biles out of the competition.

During the finals, Chiles did well on both the bars and beam but fell short during the floor event with a fall on her third tumbling pass.

The modified U.S. team composed of Sunisa Lee, Chiles and Grace McCallum, claimed second place with a silver medal, following the Russian Olympic Committee for gold by three points. The ROC ended with a score of 169.528 during the July 27 event.



The U.S. scored 42.732 for the vault compared to ROC’s score of 43.799. Then, the U.S. earned a score of 43.266 for the uneven bars, still behind ROC’s score of 44.699. The U.S. team scored almost two points higher than ROC in the balance beam.

Chiles didn’t move forward for the all-around competition or the event finals.

“I’m proud of how the girls stepped up and did what they had to do,” said Biles in a news release from the Federation of Internationale De Gymnastique. “I said: ‘you have done all the training, you can do this without me, and it will be just fine.’”