• Slug: Sports–Jade Carey Gymnastics Olympics, 970 words.
• Photo available.
• Video available.

By Tyler Bednar
Cronkite News

PARIS – Jade Carey, a Mountain Ridge High School alumnus and former competitor at Arizona Sunrays, is back in the Summer Olympics. This is her second trip to the Summer Games after she competed for Team USA in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where she won the gold medal in the floor exercise.

“I would say it’s really rewarding and special,” Carey said. “I never thought that I would even get there once, so to get there twice means that much more to me.

Carey, 24, has pushed through a difficult first few days at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“I just have not been feeling well the past few days and haven’t been able to eat or anything,” Carey told Olympics.com.

Carey fell on her last floor exercise tumbling pass, but she bounced back on vault and put together a 14.433 average in her two attempts of the second qualifying session.

Carey’s effort on vault will likely allow her to compete in the event’s final. The top eight finishers in each event advance to the final, which will take place starting Saturday. She sits second in the vaulting standings.

The U.S. women’s gymnastics team has continued its dominance and leads all countries with 172.296 points. Carey and the rest of the roster will aim for their third gold since 2012 Tuesday.

Carey is with a similar group as the last Olympics, which includes 2020 all-around champion Sunisa Lee and seven-time Olympic medalist and 2016 all-around champion Simone Biles.

It was during those 2016 Rio Olympics that Carey realized she could potentially become an Olympian.

“I feel like it wasn’t until I watched the 2016 Olympics, when I was sitting on the couch with my dad and just watching it and realizing that I could do some of that gymnastics that I was seeing,” Carey said. “That kind of made me realize that it was possible to do.”

Carey’s dad, Brian, has been instrumental in her professional and collegiate career. He doubles as her father at home and her coach in the gym. He is a former gymnast who is an assistant coach at Oregon State University – where Carey competes collegiately.

“We’re really good at keeping things separate,” Carey said. “We don’t really talk about gymnastics if we’re not in the gym. I look at him as a coach in the gym and just as a dad at home, so really finding that balance early and sticking with that is definitely what’s helped us the most.”

The 2020 Summer Olympics were unique. In March 2020, the world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a matter of days, everyone was hunkered down in their homes to help lessen the disease’s spread.

COVID-19 impacted the Olympics, similar to other sporting events across the world. For the first time in Olympics history, the games were rescheduled. The games occurred during the 2021 summer, although no fans were present during the events.

That change between the 2020 Olympics and the 2024 Games is something Carey is looking forward to experiencing.

“I’m most excited for having a crowd and fans,” Carey said. “It’s going be really exciting to have an arena full of people cheering us on, and also just to be able to experience the Olympic Village.”

Carey experienced a full range of emotions during a 24-hour period at the Tokyo Olympics.

During the vault finals, she struggled on both vault landings and finished the event in eighth place.

She bounced back the very next night.

She landed all four of her tumbling passes in the floor exercise and earned a gold medal-winning 14.366 score. Her dad was the first person she embraced after she finished her routine. Once she officially claimed the gold medal, she hugged him once more as her teammates cheered in the stands.

“I can’t even describe it,” Brian Carey said. “She had gone from such a low the day before to such a high that day that it was just an incredible flow of emotions. It was really, really cool.”

When she returned to the United States as a gold medalist, she continued to garner support. Phoenix mayor Kate Gallego proclaimed Aug. 17 Jade Carey Day.

“The city of Phoenix gets our name from a bird that rose from the ashes, and the hope was that people from here would rise from tough circumstances to flourish, and Jade, you have done just that and made this community proud,” Gallego said in 2021.

Since her victory at the 2020 Olympics, Carey has competed on the Oregon State gymnastics team. She made her highly anticipated debut on Jan. 15, 2022, and instantly dominated the collegiate competition.

She earned Pac-12 gymnast of the year in her first two collegiate seasons.

Carey is Oregon State’s leader, which has helped her perform better in high-intensity situations.

“I think college has helped me a lot with consistency and form and pressure,” Carey said. “I was our anchor on every event in college, so I always had some sort of pressure situation thrown at me, but honestly I think that was all for the best and really helped prepare me for these high-pressure situations.”

Carey earned her second Olympics trip in early July by placing fourth in the all-around event, while placing first on vault and second in the floor exercise. Biles, Lee, Jordan Chiles and Hezly Rivera will be representing the team, while Leanne Wong and Joscelyn Robertson are the traveling replacements.

Through it all, her father and coach will be there with her in Paris.

“My dad is very special to me, and to be able to share these incredible experiences with him means a lot,” Carey said. “We’ve definitely been through it all together, the good and the bad, and it’s never changed our relationship or how we go about certain situations, so just being able to have him here and help me get to the biggest stage in the world is really special.”

For more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org.