Jade Carey Competes Through Illness in Women’s Gymnastics Qualification Round

U.S. gymnast Jade Carey faced significant challenges as she competed in the women’s gymnastics qualification round on Sunday, July 28, amid recent health issues. The 24-year-old, who won gold in the floor exercise at the Tokyo Olympics, revealed to Olympics.com that she has been struggling with an unspecified illness, which has affected her ability to eat and left her feeling drained.

“I just have not been feeling well the past few days and haven’t been able to eat or anything,” Carey shared. “I had, like, no energy today and didn’t really have a sense of what was going on in my head. So, I just kind of wanted people to know that so they know that there’s actually something wrong.”

Carey’s struggle was evident during her floor routine, where a fall on her last tumbling pass resulted in her landing out of bounds. Despite this setback, retired Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman praised Carey’s perseverance. “One of the hardest things about sports is that no matter how much you prepare, sometimes the morning that you wake up for a meet, you might not be feeling well,” Raisman said. “It’s just so devastating to hear that she hasn’t been feeling well. I hope that she knows that she did an unbelievable job.”

Carey’s health issues follow similar challenges for her teammate, Simone Biles, who also experienced discomfort during the opening round. Biles briefly left the mat to have her left ankle taped before the floor exercise. Despite these difficulties, both Carey and Biles contributed significantly to Team USA’s strong performance, ending the round in the lead with a total score of 172.296.

Carey took to X (formerly Twitter) later on July 28 to express her gratitude for the support she has received. In response to journalist Scott Bregman’s tweet about her condition, she wrote, “I haven’t been feeling the best the past few days but I gave it everything I had today.” She added, “Thank you for all the support I have received. I’m so grateful,” with two red heart emojis.

Despite scoring 10.633 on the floor and falling short of defending her gold medal, Carey made a strong comeback on the vault, earning a score of 14.433.

Via Olympics.com