‘I Didn’t Think the Sport Wanted Me Anymore’

Once on the verge of throwing away her trophies in frustration, the gymnast Jordan Chiles has found her happy place — with her pal Simone Biles.

ST. LOUIS — Jordan Chiles felt numb. She looked around her bedroom in Vancouver, Wash., at the dozens of medals, the rainbows of ribbons, the trophies standing in formation, all from a gymnastics career that started when she was 6. None of it meant a thing. She asked her mother, Gina Chiles, to take it all away. Hide it. Dump it. Burn it. Just make it disappear.