Illness ended Jade Carey’s hopes for another floor exercise medal. She could still win the team gold

PARIS (AP) — Jade Carey won’t get a chance to defend the floor exercise gold medal she won three years ago in Tokyo, a victory that served as a vindication for the winding path she took to the Games.

An uncharacteristically mistake-riddled routine during qualifying Sunday led Carey to finish well outside the top eight at the Paris Olympics. She acknowledged afterward she hadn’t been feeling well, not exactly an optimal way to prepare for a 45-second routine that requires strength, precision and stamina.

The 24-year-old did earn a spot in the vault final following a third-place finish behind Simone Biles and Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade.

Yet more importantly for Carey, she’ll be on the floor Tuesday night with Biles and the rest of the five-woman U.S. team as it tries to reclaim the top of the podium after finishing runner-up to Russia.

Yes, the gold on floor she claimed in Japan is precious. Yet the experience as a whole was a little strange. And it wasn’t just the COVID-19 pandemic that stripped the stands of fans and the Games of some of its soul.

Carey claimed a spot in the Olympics by traveling across the globe, racking up enough points in World Cup events to earn a nominative spot that was uniquely hers.

It was ultimately a one-time-only thing — the International Gymnastics Federation abandoned the practice after a single quadrennial — but Carey dutifully checked off the boxes necessary to assure herself of a trip to Japan.

Still, it was weird. While Carey and MyKayla Skinner — who earned a spot as a vault specialist — were part of the U.S. delegation, they weren’t officially on the four-woman U.S. team that finished runner-up to Russia.

The rules stipulated the duo also couldn’t wear the same leotard as Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jade Carey and Grace McCallum.

“It was weird because we were still Team USA, but not like a part of them,” Carey said after the U.S. Olympic trials. “But everyone did a really good job of still trying to make sure that, like, me and McKayla felt included and part of the team.”

Up to a point anyway.

When Biles removed herself from the team final to focus on her mental health, Carey watched from the stands helpless. There was nothing she could do but cheer on Lee, Chiles and McCallum as they tried to navigate the emotional blow of losing their unquestioned leader in real-time.

That won’t be an issue this time, not after Carey and her father Brian — her longtime personal coach who is now an assistant at Oregon State, where his daughter is a rising junior — put together a meticulous plan that saw her build back her skills in the run-up to the Games.

Staying patient was not easy even though she had plenty to focus on while competing for the Beavers. Carey found she thrived in a college environment, one of the reasons she opted to stay in school while Lee (Auburn) and Chiles (UCLA) left school in 2023 to prep for another potential trip to the Games.

Still, as the calendar flipped to 2024, she grew anxious. Her father put together a training schedule designed to have her ramp up her skills gradually, with the idea of peaking in time for the Olympic trials.

“It felt stressful at times because I knew that I could be doing a lot harder gymnastics and more skills than I was competing,” she said. “But just knowing that, like, my dad’s plan was right for me and not pushing too hard until I actually needed to.”

Yet in a nod to Carey’s age — advanced for an elite, though not as advanced as it used to be — and workload, Brian Carey wrote down the weekly schedule in pencil so there could be plenty of flexibility.

Everything worked out. By the time Trials rolled around, Carey’s vaulting was close to where it was at her peak. The power in her tumbling had returned, which made hearing her name called when the team was announced all the more gratifying.

She admitted making it this time was “more special” than in 2021. She was team-adjacent in Tokyo. On Tuesday night, she will salute the judges in the same leotard as the other four Americans, intent on adding a team gold that would serve as the highlight of a career stuffed with them.

Perhaps just as importantly, she’ll do it with friends she considers sisters.

“We want to make our dreams happen together,” Carey said. “Especially from last time. So it just means the world to us to be able to go there again all together.”