American Carey takes gold on floor
TOKYO — No one doubted that U.S. gymnast Jade Carey had the physical tools to medal at the Olympics.
But where she stood mentally Monday, 24 hours after tripping in the vault final Sunday, was an unknown even to a certain degree for Carey and her coach Brian Carey, who as father carried the additional responsibility of consoling his 21-yearold daughter.
“Obviously it wasn't what she came to do,” Brian said of Jade's eight place in vault. “I told her you may feel like yesterday was one of the worst days of your life, but today can be the best. Yesterday is over, let's go get it. She just went after it and had a great day.”
Carey hit what she described as her best floor exercise routine ever, putting up an early score of 14.366 that held up for a gold medal at Ariake Gymnastics Centre. She joins Aly Raisman (2012) and Simone Biles (2016) as consecutive U.S. Olympic champions on floor, the longest gold streak since four in a row for Romania from 1980-92.
Biles dropped out of the floor final for mental health concerns as she did in the team, all-around (replaced by Carey), vaulting and uneven bars finals. She plans to compete again on balance beam Tuesday.
Biles' absence opened the door for MyKayla Skinner to compete Sunday in the vault final, winning a silver medal. Carey might have won a floor medal even with Biles in the eight-woman final but without her she was the only U.S. hope on a night when no American men were qualified in still rings and vaulting finals.
All six U.S. women gymnasts will leave Tokyo with at least one medal including Carey and Skinner, who qualified as individuals and did not compete on silver medal-winning team.
For Carey, the emotional swing from Sunday to Monday is as great as an athlete is likely to face. Her journey around the world from 2018-'20 to qualify for the Olympics via the Apparatus World Cup Series served her well in quickly putting her vault error behind.
“I'm glad we did the series,” Brian Carey said. “It was good experience for her and really helped to get ready to have things thrown at you.”
“Yesterday was very tough for me,” Jade said. “I tripped in my hurdle or right before, I don't really know. It's kind of a blur now. I've never done that before so I definitely was shocked at first. It was just a fluke.”
“I'm glad I'm safe and healthy. Just doing that second vault was a challenge, but I didn't want to give up. I heard everyone in the stands cheering for me, and that really helped. For tonight, I just had to let that go and think about floor.
Brian said Jade had no choice after tripping Sunday but to throw an easier Yurchenko vault instead of her usual Cheng. Following up with an Amanar vault was, in fact, the first step toward recovery that paid off Monday with three solid passes and the highest difficulty score (6.3) even without attempting a triple-double layout, which no woman has landed at a major international meet.
“I've kind of been planning that I was just going to do that routine because I'm so comfortable with it and it's clean and I know that I can do it,” Carey said.
Carey had a long wait before beginning her routine while judges pondered how to score 16-year-old Viktoriia Listunova, who going first went out of bounds and fell. Brian asked if she wanted to come down off the podium to wait and Carey replied with an I'm good thumbs up, a sign of being dialed in for redemption.
Her score was higher than any from qualifying July 25 when Vanessa Ferrari led at 14.166 followed by Biles (14.133) and Carey (14.100).
Ferrari, 30-year-old Italian, came closest to Carey in the final at 14.200 for the silver medal. Japan's Mai Murakami and Angelina Melnikova of the Russian Olympic Committee tied for third (14.166).