USA Gymnasts’ Olympic Redemption Tour Continues

After Simone Biles pulled out of the vault final in Tokyo 2021, Olympic teammate Jade Carey emerged as an immediate favorite for gold. The second-highest qualifier behind Biles, Carey just needed to land on her feet to secure her first Olympic medal.

In a shocking turn of events, disaster struck for Carey. She sprinted down the vault runway, and slipped. To save her vault and preserve her safety, Carey balked on her difficult vault to instead complete a simple Yurchenko tucked vault. Though she landed cleanly, the repercussions were catastrophic for her medal chances.

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In qualifications, Jade earned a huge 15.166 for her first vault. On the day of event finals, she posted just a 11.933. Within seconds, her Olympic medal hopes seemed lost. The gold-medal frontrunner finished dead last in the final.

Though Carey went on to redeem herself, winning gold after a spectacular effort in floor finals, she had trouble shaking the disappointment of her vault finals fluke.

In an interview with journalist Hoda Kotb, Jade shared the whirlwind of feelings she felt after vault finals. “Last night was definitely hard for me, but I just had to remember that I wasn’t done yet and we still had floor, so I needed to put it behind me and give everything I could into floor.” With her floor redemption complete in Tokyo, vault redemption catapulted to the forefront.

While teammates Sunisa Lee and Simone Biles touted Paris 2024 as their team’s redemption tour, Jade also set sights on personal redemption. For her, that redemption needed to come on vault.

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In an interview with ESPN, Jade spoke to the importance of a vault medal. “For me, that word has the most meaning on vault,” she said. “Last time, not doing my best in the vault final when I was definitely expected to medal was hard. Just making the vault final again and proving that I’m as good as I was last time and belong there will be redemption. And hopefully walking away with a medal this time.”

On August 3 in Bercy Arena, Jade did just that. Though hits from Biles and Andrade put gold and silver out of reach, the battle for bronze was Carey’s to win. After errors from defending Olympic bronze medalist Yeo Seo-jeong (KOR), the door was open for Carey to claim her redemption medal.

Last up, she just had to land her two vaults cleanly and the bronze medal would be hers. Starting with her difficult Cheng vault – the vault she struggled on in Tokyo – she had to hit. She sprinted down the runway without issue, completing her half turn onto the table and wrapping 1 1/2 twists to a tiny hop. 14.733, the score. Bronze was all but won – she just needed to land her second vault.

Though she indicated an Amanar vault to the judges, flashing a difficultly score of 5.6, Carey showed her resilience mid-air to secure the bronze. Instead of vaulting the difficult 2 1/2 twists, she downgraded to a double twist in what appeared to be a split decision, landing with another near-stick to secure a spot on the podium. Redemption complete for Team USA, once again.

In a post-meet interview with the medal around her neck, Jade stressed how much the outcome meant to her. “This means everything to me,” she says with a smile. “It’s the perfect ending for myself. I wanted to come here and redeem myself on vault and I couldn’t be happier about it.” The Redemption Tour continues to roll for Team USA.