Phoenix Gymnast Jade Carey Moves Past Disappointment, Wins Gold

TOKYO — Jade Carey may have had a difficult Sunday, but the Arizona Stingrays gymnast wasted no time in recovering from a disappointing experience on the vault with a golden performance in the floor exercise on Monday.

Carey captured a gold medal in the floor exercise at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre with a score of 14.366 that held up to make her the top finisher in the event. Carey is the third straight American gymnast to win gold in the event joining Simone Biles in 2016 and Aly Raisman who won the event in 2012.

Carey’s top showing on Monday came 24 hours after she tripped in the vault finals and was inspired to put Sunday behind her by her coach and father, Brian Carey, who told the Arizona Republic that his message to his 21-year-old daughter was simple.

“Obviously it wasn’t what she came to do,” Brian Carey said after Jade finished eighth on the vault. “I told her you may feel like yesterday was one of the worst days of your life, but today can be the best. Yesterday is over, let’s go get it. She just went after it and had a great day.”

Brian Carey wasn't the only one to provide a pep talk to the gymnast after she tripped in the first of two vault attempts. Carey told reporters Monday that Biles encouraged her to quickly move past the effort and focus on what was ahead.

"She said: 'It happened, and you can't do anything about it'," Carey said. "She was like, 'Let's go out and kill floor,' and that's what I did."

Carey replaced Biles after the multi-time gold medalist dropped out of the finals in several events to address mental health issues. USA Gymnastics confirmed that Biles plans to return to the team for the balance beam finals on Tuesday.

Fellow Arizonan MyKayla Skinner replaced Biles in the vault final on Sunday, where she won a silver medal, the Arizona Republic reported. Yet, despite her trip on the vault on Sunday, Carey will leave Tokyo will a redemptive gold medal for her efforts.

“Yesterday was very tough for me,” Carey told reporters, according to the Arizona Republic. “I tripped in my hurdle or right before, I don’t really know. It’s kind of a blur now. I’ve never done that before so I definitely was shocked at first. It was just a fluke.”

“I’m glad I’m safe and healthy. Just doing that second vault was a challenge, but I didn’t want to give up. I heard everyone in the stands cheering for me, and that really helped. For tonight, I just had to let that go and think about floor."