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Louise Thomas
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Jordan Chiles has been speaking out about her long nails.
The 23-year-old gymnast, who recently took home the bronze medal during the individual floor routine at Paris 2024, appeared in a recent episode of Vogue’s The Run-Through podcast with hosts Chioma Nnadi and Chloe Malle, where she explained how she is able to successfully complete various gymnastics skills while also wearing long acrylic nails.
“It makes me think of the right technique because I’m not trying to fall or break a nail... my nails are too precious and too good looking to be breaking,” the Olympian told the hosts.
She revealed that she first began getting her signature long nails when she was 15-years-old. “I started off really short, but as I got used to them, I just started getting them longer,” Chiles said.
During this year’s Games, the gymnast was seen with French tips adorned with spots of blue and red with a line of gold.
Last week she and her teammates, Simone Biles, Suni Lee, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera, took home the gold medal during the women’s gymnastics team finals on July 30. As Chiles took to the mat for her final Olympic event on Tuesday, the gymnast delivered an electrifying floor routine that had her family jumping for joy in the stands.
Her floor routine featured multiple different Beyonce songs as she winked at the camera. After she finished, she was seen crying before running over to the rest of her team. The cameras also panned over to her parents Timothy and Gina Chiles, as her father was standing up and clapping his chest while her mother was in tears.
Their emotional response to their daughter’s routine even had TV viewers in tears, with many people talking about it on social media.
Chiles isn’t the only Olympian who gained attention over her signature look. One Team USA gymnast on the men’s team, Stephen Nedoroscik, has been given the name “pommel horse guy” after winning an Olympic medal in men’s gymnastics for the USA for the first time in 16 years.
During his event, he delivered a nearly perfect routine with a score of 14.866. But instead of his skills, viewers were drawn to his glasses which many people compared to Clark Kent as he specifically took his glasses off to compete.
“Obsessed with this guy on the US men’s gymnastics team who’s [sic] only job is pommel horse,” one user named Megan wrote on X, after Nedoroscik’s performance. “He just sits there until he’s activated like a sleeper agent, whips off his glasses like Clark Kent and does a pommel horse routine that helps deliver the team its first medal in 16 years.”
“It’s not necessarily clear, but the thing about pommel horse is if I keep them on, they’re gonna fly somewhere,” he told Today about why exactly he takes his glasses off. “When I go up on the pommel horse, it’s all about feeling the equipment. I don’t even really see when I’m doing my gymnastics. It’s all in the hands – I can feel everything.”
“I think they’re awesome,” Nedoroscik specifically said about the memes including him. “I’m representing people that wear glasses well.”
