US Gymnast Jade Carey Denied 33-Year-Old Veteran Her First Gold at Tokyo Olympics

Six-time Olympic and World Championship medalist is ready to call it a career at 33 years old. But first, she hopes to compete once last time at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. This Paris journey, in her words, is “much more difficult compared to all the others” In the 15 years of her elite career which began at 16, she hit a competence setback in 2021 when American gymnast Jade Carey won what could’ve been her career’s first Olympic gold medal in Tokyo. According to her, “simple things have never happened to me(her)!”

We’re talking about the Italian gymnastics icon competing in her fifth and last Olympics in only 74 days—if she wins the Olympic Trials. The hunger to increase her medal collection is real. Furthermore, Team US’s gymnasts dominate equally, including the most decorated gymnast Simone Biles, who is likely going for her final Olympics.

Jade Carey upsets the ‘Orzinuovi butterfly’ with a golden finish

Vanessa Ferrari made Italian sporting history in Tokyo 2020 when she won a silver medal in the women’s floor gymnastics event. America’s Jade Carey got 14,366 points, beating out the Orzinuovi butterfly’s 14,200 points. When Ferrari was asked by Olympics.com about the podium miss, she said, “She [Jade Carey] had a slightly stronger acrobatic move, she did well, so did I… so let’s say the thought was definitely there, but I was thrilled with the silver, and that’s perfectly fine.”

It was a bittersweet moment for Ferrari because, although she had won Junior titles since she was 13 it wasn’t until she was thirty that she secured her first Olympic gold following close calls in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and London in 2012. Her stunning performance completed her lengthy recovery from an Achilles tendon tear four years ago.

Ferrari became Italy’s first women’s gymnastics medalist since 1928. In addition, Ferrari told Olympics.com,  “After Tokyo 2020, it was very, very difficult for me to find inspiration, the desire to get back into it. With time, however, I found the desire to try again.” Even Jade Carey’s journey wasn’t easy; she had to work hard to get the International Gymnastics Federation’s only consideration ever to guarantee herself a spot in Tokyo.

Carey needed enough scores in World Cup events to be able to earn a nominative spot. She spent 16 months traveling to Germany, Qatar, Azerbaijan, and Australia winning in vault and floor routines. On the night of the U.S. Olympic Trials, they formally accepted her into the team. This year, the road to the Olympic podium poses an additional challenge with gymnastics veterans making their comeback.

Multiverse of gymnastics greats at Olympic Trials

Vanessa Ferrari is joined by other experienced competitors in gymnastics who may be making their final tour at the Olympics. The two oldest gymnasts competing for medals for Team USA are Simone Biles, 26, who has four Olympic golds, and Gabby Douglas, 28, who has three Olympic golds. The gymnastics trio has a history of competing against each other in gymnastics contests from over a decade ago.

While Jade Carey has paved her own path in gymnastics. This time, at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, she ventured into taking the challenge to become the first active NCAA women’s gymnast to be selected for the American women’s gymnastics team. Carey told Olympics.com, “It’s going to be different and hard.” The Trial qualification stands as the final hurdle to Olympic success for each gymnast, who is carving out their own path to further their career and reach their greatest potential.