Olympic medalist Jade Carey walked away from her elite gymnastics career with everything she ever wanted, including two gold medals in two Olympics.
But after she joined the coaching staff at Oregon State, where she competed all four years, she found herself wanting to push herself again.
"I just feel like I still love gymnastics and I love spinning and flying through the air," Carey said. "What's always been the most fun part of gymnastics for me is what our bodies can do, so I really think it stems from the love that I have with doing the sport."
Carey hadn't ever taken off more than one week from training and was now tasked with learning the basics again.
She paced herself throughout the process and steered clear of dwelling on what her past
self could have done. The 26-year-old has already come to terms with the fact that she's not the 21-year-old who won gold in the floor exercise at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
"I've told my dad that the floor routine I did in Tokyo was pretty hard. I don't know if that's coming back, but you don't know," Carey said. "I feel like training and getting back into it this year was hard, but I've hit my stride, and it's getting easier, and I'm feeling more familiar, so you never know what can happen in the next two years."
And now Carey is competing for her first U.S. Gymnastics Championships since 2024, at Mortgage Matchup Center, a place where she grew up 30 minutes away from.
"I came here all the time for Suns games and Mercury games," Carey said. "A family friend of ours was actually the Phoenix Suns gorilla mascot for a long time. We got to come and watch the games all the time, which was fun."
Carey, like several other big names in gymnastics, is returning to competition with hopes of representing the U.S. in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Carey's comeback tour began earlier than her peers because she wanted to compete in Phoenix, where she grew up training at Arizona Sunrays with her dad as her coach.
"I've had lots of people reach out to me, telling me that they'll be here," Carey said. "I'm excited to have that love and support in the arena with so many people that I'll personally know. That's just really exciting and special for me to have."
By the time the Olympics come around, Carey would be 28, which would break Simone Biles’ record as the oldest U.S. female gymnast at an Olympics since 1952. No American gymnast — man or woman — has won gold at three Olympics.
Many gymnasts have tried to come back following a long layoff from the sport, and several have succeeded. What has helped Carey get this far into her comeback is her mental toughness, and that she has two years before the next Olympics.
"The literal comeback is the hardest part," Olympic champion and current NBC Sports analyst Laurie Hernandez said. "Sometimes you can have a lot of doubt about if I'm going to get back to the level of gymnastics that I used to compete at. Jade specifically had talked about making sure to pace herself, but because she's competed such high-level skills for almost a decade, she feels she doesn't have to do as much repetition. It's more about quality and intentional work at practice. I find that really interesting. Her numbers may be going down, but mentally, she's just as locked in as ever."
The four-day competition will feature the women's events on Friday, Aug. 7, and Sunday, Aug. 9. The women have a strong field, including Olympic medalist Hezly Rivera, who is vying to defend her U.S. title.
The men's competition will be on Thursday, Aug. 6, and Saturday, Aug. 8, and is headlined by Olympic medalists Frederick Richard and Stephen Nedoroscik.
Reach the reporter or send tips for stories at jenna.ortiz@arizonarepublic.com, as well as @jennarortiz on X.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Jade Carey's road to 3rd Olympics includes hometown stop
