Jade Carey

In 2016, Carey competed at the Junior Olympics Nationals where she successfully completed a tucked Kasamatsu full on vault, after which it was named The Carey in the J.O. code of points.[2] Carey was invited to her first elite level national team camp in late 2016.[3]

Carey began 2017 as a Level 10 gymnast, which is below elite level in USA Gymnastics. She was invited to The Ranch by national team coordinator Valeri Liukin throughout the beginning of the year[4][5][6] where she qualified for elite status.[7]

Carey made her elite debut at the American Classic at Karolyi Ranch on July 7, 2017. She only competed on vault, floor, and balance beam but placed first on each of those events.[8] Later that month, she competed at the 2017 U.S. Classic and once again only competed on vault, floor, and balance beam. She placed first on vault, where she competed an Amanar and a double-twisting Tsukahara, first on floor, including both a full-twisting double layout (Chusovitina) and double-twisting double tuck (Silivas) in her routine, and fourth on balance beam.[9][10] In August, Carey participated in the 2017 U.S. National Gymnastics Championships where she won gold on vault and silver on floor exercise, behind Ragan Smith.[11] She was named to the national team for the first time.[12]

In September, Carey was selected to represent the United States at the 2017 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Montreal alongside Ragan Smith, Morgan Hurd, and Ashton Locklear.[13][14] On the first day of competition, Carey competed only on floor and vault. With clean performances on both, she qualified in third place for the floor exercise final (14.100), behind Smith and Mai Murakami of Japan, and second in the vault final, behind reigning world champion Maria Paseka of Russia.[15][16]

During event finals, Carey won the silver medal on both vault and floor exercise, once again finishing behind Paseka and Murakami respectively.[17][18]

Carey competed at the American Classic in early July in Salt Lake City, Utah.[19] She competed her first elite uneven bars routine in addition to her routine on balance beam and placed 10th on each apparatus.[20] On July 28, Carey made her elite all-around debut at the 2018 U.S. Classic. She placed first on vault, where she debuted a Lopez as her new second vault, and second on floor behind Simone Biles, where she debuted a Moors (double-twisting double layout) as her opening pass.[21] However, she only placed 10th all-around due to a fall on uneven bars and a major error on her beam dismount.

In August Carey competed at the National Championships where she placed sixth in the all-around, earning an automatic national team spot. She also finished third on vault behind Biles and Jordan Chiles, second on floor exercise behind Biles, 15th on uneven bars, and 9th on balance beam.[22] On August 20 Carey was named to the team to compete at the Pan American Championships alongside Grace McCallum, Trinity Thomas, Kara Eaker, and Shilese Jones.[23] There she won gold in the team finals and on vault and floor exercise.[24][25]

In October, the nominative team roster for the 2018 World Championships in Doha, Qatar was posted. Carey was noticeably absent despite her strong performances at the previous two competitions.[26] USAG later revealed that Carey had declined her invitation to the Worlds qualification camp and was going to pursue qualifying for the 2020 Olympics "as an individual through the apparatus World Cup series, which precludes her competing on the 2018 World Team".[27][28] As the American team later won the gold medal at the championships and thus qualified to the Olympics, she would have been ineligible to qualify a nominative spot on the World Cup series had she competed in Doha.

In November, USAG announced that Carey would be competing at the Cottbus World Cup.[29] She qualified second to the vault final behind Rebeca Andrade of Brazil[30] and first to the floor exercise final.[31] During event finals Carey won silver on vault, once again behind Andrade,[32] and fifth on floor exercise after stepping out of bounds three times.[33]

In February, USA Gymnastics announced that Carey would compete at the Baku and Doha World Cups in March.[34] In Baku, Carey qualified in first place to the vault final after upgrading her López (start value 5.2) to a Cheng (start value 6.0)[35] and qualified second to the floor exercise final behind Lara Mori of Italy after going out of bounds and performing a watered down routine.[36] She received the AGF Trophy for having the highest combined execution score in the qualification round.[37] Carey won the gold medal in the vault final and was the only gymnast to earn execution scores above nine on both of her vaults.[38] The following day, she competed in the floor exercise final with higher difficulty and won the gold medal ahead of Mori and three-time Olympian Vanessa Ferrari.[39] At the Doha World Cup, Carey qualified to the vault final in second place behind Maria Paseka[40][41] and first to the floor exercise final, 0.8 points ahead of second place Marine Boyer of France and Kim Bui of Germany.[42] In the vault final, Carey won the gold medal, defeating Paseka by 0.117 points. Once again she was the only competitor to earn an execution score above 9 on both of her vaults.[43] In the floor exercise final, Carey once again won the gold medal ahead of Mori and Ferrari, defeating them by more than one point.[44]

At the 2019 GK US Classic in July, Carey placed tenth in the all-around. She won the gold medal on vault ahead of Aleah Finnegan and Shilese Jones and she tied with Grace McCallum for the silver medal on floor exercise behind Simone Biles. She placed fifteenth on uneven bars and tied for seventeenth on balance beam with Alexis Jeffrey.[45]

At the 2019 U.S. National Championships Carey competed on all four events and ended the first day of competition in third in the all-around behind Biles and Sunisa Lee.[46] On the second day of competition she fell off the uneven bars and finished seventh in the all-around but won silver on vault and floor exercise, finishing behind Biles on both. As a result she was added to the national team for the third time.[47]

In September Carey competed at the US World Championships trials where she placed fifth in the all-around behind Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Kara Eaker, and MyKayla Skinner. The following day she was named to the team to compete at the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart alongside Biles, Lee, Eaker, Skinner, and Grace McCallum.[48]

During qualifications she helped the USA qualify to the team final in first place over five points ahead of second place China. Individually she qualified to the vault final in first place ahead of Biles and recorded the second highest floor exercise score, behind Biles and tied with Lee. However, due to Lee receiving a higher execution score, Carey did not qualify to the floor exercise final due to the rule limiting individual finals to two competitors per country.[49] In the team final, Carey competed on vault and floor exercise, receiving the second highest scores of the day on each, behind Biles, and helping the USA win the gold medal ahead of Russia and Italy.[50] During the vault final Carey performed a Cheng and an Amanar, taking a step out of bounds on the latter, earning an average score of 14.883 and winning the silver medal behind Biles and ahead of Ellie Downie of Great Britain.[51][52][53]

In November Carey traveled to Zürich, Switzerland to compete at the Swiss Cup, a unique team competition that featured one female gymnast and one male gymnast from the same country going head-to-head with other teams. She was partnered with Allan Bower. Together they finished in first place, beating the Ukrainian team of Diana Varinska and Oleg Verniaiev.[54]

In late January Carey was listed on a nominative roster that was released for the Melbourne World Cup, scheduled to take place on February 20. She qualified in first place to both the vault and floor exercise event finals, 0.833 points ahead of Shoko Miyata and 0.633 points ahead of Vanessa Ferrari respectively.[55][56] During the vault final she competed the Cheng and double twisting Yurchenko and won gold ahead of Coline Devillard of France.[57] The following day she won gold on floor exercise as well, once again finishing ahead of Ferrari.[58]

Carey verbally committed to compete in NCAA gymnastics at Oregon State University, starting in the 2018-19 school year.[59] She officially signed with the Oregon State Beavers on November 9, 2017.[60] She deferred enrollment until after the 2020 Olympics, starting in the 2020–21 school year.[61] However, due to the postponement of the Olympics, Carey enrolled in classes for the 2020–21 school year but deferred competing for the Beavers until after the Olympics take place in 2021.[62]