Jade Carey Wins Olympic Bronze in Vault, Fulfilling Long-Awaited Redemption
Jade Carey secures her third Olympic medal with a bronze in vault, overcoming past setbacks and illness. Read about her inspiring journey to redemption at the Paris Games.
Bollywood Fever: Jade Carey and her coach, Brian Carey—also known as Dad at home—plan her gymnastics career on a massive desk calendar. Training sessions are penciled in, emphasizing the need for flexibility, especially when you’re 24 and have been flipping and twisting for most of your life. Meets, however, are written in pen, including the date of the Olympic vault final, which Jade memorized long ago.
Three years ago in Tokyo, Jade stumbled in the vault event, a mistake that left her shaking and determined to avoid a repeat if she made it to Paris. When the moment arrived on Saturday, the date long circled on the calendar marked not just the Olympic vault final but also the anniversary of her third Olympic medal.
Despite battling a stomach virus earlier in the Games, Carey executed two excellent vaults to finish a strong third behind superstar teammate Simone Biles and Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, achieving the “redemption” she had long sought.
Carey, who won a world championship on vault in 2022, valued the Olympic medal more. “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 another era, Carey’s two-vault average of 14.466 might have secured a higher podium spot, but not in the Biles era. Nonetheless, Carey called her teammate an “inspiration.”
Carey’s journey is remarkable in its own right. After the Tokyo Olympics, she attended Oregon State, thriving in the team atmosphere while maintaining her elite skills. She won three medals at the 2022 world championships, including a gold on vault, before scaling back her training to focus on a long-term plan for Paris, devised by her father.
“She likes to go 100 mph sometimes,” Brian Carey said, reflecting on Jade’s drive and athleticism. Known for her exceptional tumbling and vaulting, Jade also holds a floor exercise gold medal from the Tokyo Games.
Patience was key during the spring and early summer as her father developed a program to peak at the U.S. Olympic trials. Recognizing her best shot at making the five-woman team was as a specialist on vault and floor, they backed off on uneven bars and balance beam to concentrate on her strengths.
Their strategy worked perfectly until they both fell ill upon arriving in Paris. Despite struggling through the floor exercise in qualifying, Jade recovered enough to excel in the team final and assured U.S. national team doctors she would be ready for the vault final.
Her perseverance paid off, adding a third Olympic medal to her career total. The stumble in Tokyo still stings but also motivated her return to 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.”
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