Carey wins vault to move closer to Olympic berth

Jade Carey won vaulting Saturday at an International Gymnastics Federation individual apparatus World Cup in Melbourne, all but assuring her of a berth at the Tokyo Olympics.

Carey, 19, of Phoenix now has a maximum 90 points off three vaulting wins in the World Cup series and an almost insurmountable lead if a tiebreaker is necessary.

China’s Yu Linmin or Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade still could get to 90 points by winning World Cups in Baku, Azerbaijen, March 12-15, and Doha, Qatar, March 18-21. Yu would need to score higher than 14.900 and Andrade almost that high in both meets to surpass Carey’s combined vault total (44.465) to win a tiebreaker.

In Melbourne, where Yu and Andrade were not competing, Carey won with a 14.866 average for her two vaults. France’s Coline Devillard was second (14.249) and Japan’s Shoko Miyata third (14.149).

Carey’s win was her fifth straight on vault and floor exercise since last year. She will try for a sixth on floor Sunday, another event she leads overall in the series. On Friday, debuting a new floor routine, Carey scored 14.366, well ahead of the Italian duo of Vanessa Ferrari (13.733) and Lara Mori (13.541).

Winners of each event in the World Cup series qualify for the Olympics, July 24-Aug. 9, and are eligible to compete in every event in Tokyo.

Carey could compete in Baku or Doha, where another vault win would eliminate any tiebreaker scenario.

Carey trains at Arizona Sunrays and is coached by her father Brian, Dan Witenstein and Pam Evans. She was a team gold and vault silver medalist for the U.S. at the 2019 World Championships.