Jade Carey

2017

Carey began 2017 as a Level 10 gymnast, which is below elite level in USA Gymnastics. In mid 2017, she was invited to The Ranch by national team coordinator Valeri Liukin, where she qualified for elite status.^[3]

Carey made her elite debut at the American Classic at Karolyi Ranch on July 7, 2017. She only competed on vault, floor, and balance beam but placed first on each of those events.^[4] Later that month, she competed at the 2017 U.S. Classic and once again only competed on vault, floor, and balance beam. She placed first on vault, where she competed an Amanar and a double-twisting Tsukahara, first on floor, including both a full-twisting double layout (Chusovitina) and double-twisting double tuck (Silivas) in her routine, and fourth on balance beam.^[5][6] In August, Carey participated in the 2017 U.S. National Gymnastics Championships where she won gold on vault and silver on floor exercise, behind Ragan Smith.^[7] She was named to the national team for the first time.

In September, Carey was selected to represent the United States at the 2017 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Montreal alongside Ragan Smith, Morgan Hurd, and Ashton Locklear.^[8][9] On the first day of competition, Carey competed only on floor and vault. With clean performances on both, she qualified in third place for the floor exercise final (14.100), behind Smith and Mai Murakami of Japan, and second in the vault final, behind reigning world champion Maria Paseka of Russia.^[10][11]

During event finals, Carey won the silver medal on both vault and floor exercise, once again finishing behind Paseka and Murakami respectively.^[12][13]

2018

Carey competed at the American Classic in early July in Salt Lake City, Utah.^[14] She competed her first elite uneven bars routine in addition to her routine on balance beam and placed 10th on each apparatus.^[15] On July 28, Carey made her elite all-around debut at the 2018 U.S. Classic. She placed first on vault, where she debuted a Lopez as her new second vault, and second on floor behind Simone Biles, where she debuted a Moors (double-twisting double layout) as her opening pass.^[16] However, she only placed 10th all-around due to a fall on uneven bars and a major error on her beam dismount.

In August Carey competed at the National Championships where she placed sixth in the all-around, earning an automatic national team spot. She also finished third on vault behind Biles and Jordan Chiles, second on floor exercise behind Biles, 15th on uneven bars, and 9th on balance beam.^[17] On August 20 Carey was named to the team to compete at the Pan American Championships alongside Grace McCallum, Trinity Thomas, Kara Eaker, and Shilese Jones.^[18] There she won gold in the team finals and on vault and floor exercise.^[19][20] In October, the nominative team roster for the 2018 World Championships was posted and Carey was noticeably absent given her performance at the previous two competitions.^[21] USAG later revealed that Carey had denied her invitation to the Worlds qualification camp and was going to pursue qualifying for the 2020 Olympics "as an individual through the apparatus World Cup series, which precludes her competing on the 2018 World Team".^[22][23]