By PARIS — Last week, Jade Carey has said she was fighting an illness − unable “to eat or anything” in the days leading up to the qualifying round at the 2024 Paris Games.
On Saturday, she won a third career Olympic medal − and a redemptive one at that.
Carey earned bronze in the vault final at Bercy Arena with an average score of 14.466, finishing behind only compatriot Simone Biles − who won yet another gold at these Games − and Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, who took silver. It’s the second individual medal of Carey’s her Olympic career, and likely a meaningful one after what happened in Tokyo, where she was heavily favored in this event but stumbled on the runway and missed the podium.
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Carey went last in Saturday’s final, looking to force her way onto the podium with the final two vaults of the day. On her first attempt, she hit a Cheng, which is the second most difficult vault being performed in the world today. She then followed it up with a double twisting Yurchenko, nearly sticking the landing to move ahead of North Korea’s An Chan-ok, who ultimately finished fourth.
Carey, who won gold on floor exercise in Tokyo, only qualified for the vault final at these Games after fighting an undisclosed illness. She told Olympics.com after the women’s qualifying round that she had been unable to eat, which impacted her energy levels.
“I had, like, no energy today and didn’t really have a sense of what was going on in my head,” Carey told Olympics.com. “So, I just kind of wanted people to know that so, they know that there’s actually something wrong.”
A few days earlier, USA Gymnastics had announced that her coach and father, Brian Carey, had missed the team’s podium training because he was not feeling well.
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad.
