Question: What were you doing when you were 20 years old? Settling into your sophomore year at college? Working as an intern somewhere? Probably not flying through the air at the Olympics as a world-class athlete. That’s reserved for people like Jordan Chiles at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In the video below, we see Chiles’ ultra-spectacular “superhero-inspired” routine, which looks like something that only a machine with literal springs for legs could pull off. (Incidentally they probably will be able to sometime soon.)
In the video, Chiles, an American artistic gymnast who’s already taken home a silver team medal, shows off her incredible floor routine. Like the extraordinary sequences from Simone Biles we’ve seen before, this one involves the athlete pulling off a whole bunch of twists, flips, and twisting flips. And while we’re not sure if it’s as impressive as Biles’ epic triple-double, it obviously still looks extremely difficult.
One of the coolest parts of her floor routine is that it’s not just ostensibly inspired by superheroes. On the contrary, Chiles is apparently a big superhero fan and in all likelihood selected this routine’s song herself. For those who don’t recognize it, it’s the Spider-Man theme song from the movies featuring Tom Holland.
On top of this Spider-Man floor routine, Chiles has also performed a Wonder Woman one. The gymnast’s leotard even had the same coloration as Wonder Woman’s iconic outfit, which is the kind of attention to detail we nerds appreciate. Although sadly it seems official Olympic outfits meant Chiles’ couldn’t wear a Spidy suit for this routine.
Anybody in the mood to learn more about impressive youngsters, there are plenty of examples from which to choose. Thirteen-year-old Momiji Nishiya, for example, recently took home an Olympic gold medal for skateboarding. There’s also this child prodigy from Belgium, who wants to make humans immortal. And all we can say to that is: please also give us Chiles’ springy, superhero legs.
NBC Sports
Feature image: NBC Sports
