For years, Jordan Chiles showed up to the same place at UCLA day after day. Inside the 7,500-square-foot Yates Gymnastics room, located within the John Wooden Center, she trained, laughed, struggled, celebrated, and grew with her teammates. Now that Chiles is about to graduate in 2026 with a major in African American Studies, UCLA has decided to do something special.

With the NCAA season set to start on January 3, UCLA pulled off a move that instantly got Chiles and her teammates excited   and sent a buzz through the program and community gymnastics at large. The team showed off a full redesign of Yates Gym on December 22 via Instagram. The occasion was made even more exciting when Chiles and her teammates were chosen to inaugurate the new gym by cutting the ribbon.

Seeing the gym she had spent years in transformed right before her eyes left the 24-year-old visibly stunned and emotional. One detail stood out immediately. Bold lettering on the wall that proudly read “7x National Champions.” Seeing it, Jordan Chiles smiled and confidently said, “We’re going to make it eight.”

The redesigned gym features some major upgrades, including expanded training areas and reconfigured layouts designed to support both performance and recovery. Earlier this year, the facility temporarily closed for seismic improvements, with damage visible from the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. Now fully reopened and completely reimagined, Yates Gym has Bruins fans absolutely over the moon.

The newly unveiled Yates Gym has drummed up excitement online for what’s to come

One fan wrote, “Stuff like this can only be a positive for UCLA gymnastics, which trains at Yates Gym inside the Wooden Recreational Center on campus. If the Bruins can’t have a building dedicated to gymnastics on campus — this is the next best thing, a bright update on the training facility.”

Yates Gym was included in the John Wooden Center, which was meant to accommodate both gymnastics and other athletics, and not a complex that was solely gym-oriented. There has been a long discussion within the student and community that the gym space at UCLA was old and was failing to take care of the needs of a large campus and a high number of athletes using the space.

Another added, “Special day!!! The gym looks amazing.. go Bruins.” One more fan added, “Yates looks amazing! 🤙🏽🤙🏽 And of course love the manifestation of being 8x National Champions🙏🏽✨✨ #GoBruins.”

While UCLA did not capture the national title this season, the confidence is far from misplaced. At the 2025 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships, the Bruins finished second overall, posting a strong 197.6125 team score, narrowly trailing Oklahoma’s championship-winning 198.0125.

Even Jordan Chiles gave a performance that was needed just at the most, with a near-perfect score on the floor of 9.975 in the championship final, she earned her second NCAA individual title on uneven bars.  But not enough to win the NCAA trophy. But now, Chiles has openly embraced this moment, calling it “the passionate, confident… last era of being a Bruin,” signaling her determination to finish strong.

She is not alone. UCLA’s roster continues to build real championship momentum with athletes like Ciena Alipio, a senior all-around competitor known for her consistency on beam, along with Madisyn Anyimi, Sydney Barros, and promising freshman Ava Callahan.

One more fan added, “This looks incredible!!” and another added, “Hopefully the end of that beam was all fixed in the remodel too. 😬🙈”

Beam has long been a UCLA hallmark, with senior Emma Malabuyo ranking among the top 10 beam performers nationally in 2025 and consistently helping the Bruins post high scores. Yes, the team fell just short at the NCAA championship final, scoring 49.3125 on balance beam compared to Oklahoma’s 49.3750.

While the team fell just short due to small deductions on the balance beam, the new state-of-the-art facility is designed to provide them with every possible advantage to eliminate those errors and perfect their routines for the upcoming season