Jade Carey and her coach, Brian Carey — also known as Dad at home — plan her gymnastics career using a large desk calendar.
The training sessions are noted in pencil, reflecting the need to stay flexible because things can change, especially at 24 when you’ve been flipping, twisting, and landing for most of your life.
The competition dates are written in pen, with the date of the Olympic vault final being memorized long ago by Jade.
Three years ago in Tokyo, she stumbled in the same event, leaving her shaken and angry. She promised herself there would be no repeat if she reached Paris.
When the moment came on Saturday, the date marked on the calendar now also represents the day she won the third medal of her Olympic career.
Carey, who had trouble keeping fluids down due to a stomach virus earlier in the Games, performed two excellent vaults to finish third behind her teammate Simone Biles and Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, achieving the “redemption” she had been seeking.
Winning a world championship on vault in 2022 was great, but it wasn’t the Olympics.
“We’ve been waiting for this day for a long time, and it was one of my biggest moments to get back here,” Carey said. “I wanted to be able to prove myself that I can do two vaulting finals and walk away with a medal.”
In the past, Carey’s average score of 14.466 on two vaults might have earned her a higher place. But with Biles competing, that wasn’t the case. Carey still felt proud, calling her teammate an “inspiration.”
Carey has a compelling story and impressive gymnastics skills. After the Tokyo Olympics, she went to Oregon State and thrived in the team environment while maintaining her top-level skills.
She won three medals at the 2022 World Championships, including gold on vault, and then decided to scale back a bit. Brian Carey created a long-term plan with Paris in mind, though it was sometimes challenging for his daughter to follow.
“She likes to go 100 mph sometimes,” he said.
Her athleticism is evident in her tumbling and vaulting skills. She has a floor exercise gold medal from the Tokyo Games. Ironically, the vault medal — along with the team medal she helped win on Tuesday — is what she always wanted.
Jade worked on staying patient during the spring and early summer while her father developed a plan to have her peak at the U.S. Olympic trials. They realized her best chance of making the team was as a specialist in vault and floor, so they reduced focus on uneven bars and balance beam to emphasize her strengths.
The plan worked well until they arrived in Paris. Both Careys fell ill, with Brian first and then Jade, who struggled through the floor exercise in qualifying, missing out on another medal.
She managed to recover enough to perform her Cheng vault in the team final and assured U.S. national team doctors she would be ready for the vault. She certainly looked ready, earning her third Olympic medal.
The experience in Tokyo still hurts, but it also helped her reach this point.
“I’ve really been able to learn how strong of a person I am and like, been able to push through some of my gymnastics, in different hard situations,” she said. “So I really learned a lot about myself.”
