In 2016, Carey competed at the
Junior Olympics Nationals where she successfully completed a tucked
Kasamatsu full on vault, after which it was named
The Carey in the J.O. code of points. Carey was invited to her first elite level national team camp in late 2016.
2017 Carey began 2017 as a Level 10 gymnast, which is below elite level in
USA Gymnastics. She was invited to
The Ranch by national team coordinator
Valeri Liukin throughout the start of the year where she qualified for elite status. 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. 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. 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. She was named to the national team for the first time. In September, Carey was selected to represent the United States at the
2017 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in
Montreal alongside
Ragan Smith,
Morgan Hurd, and
Ashton Locklear. On the first day of competition, Carey competed only on floor and vault. With clean performances on both, she qualified third for the floor exercise final (14.100), behind Smith and
Mai Murakami of
Japan, and second for the vault final, behind reigning world champion
Maria Paseka of
Russia. During event finals, Carey won the silver medal on both vault and floor exercise, once again finishing behind Paseka and Murakami respectively.
2018 Carey competed at the American Classic in early July in
Salt Lake City, Utah. She competed her first elite uneven bars routine in addition to her routine on balance beam and placed 10th on each apparatus. 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. 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. 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. There she won gold in the team finals and on vault and floor exercise. In October, the nominative team roster for the
2018 World Championships in Doha, Qatar was posted. Carey was noticeably absent despite her strong performances at the previous two competitions.
USAG later revealed that Carey had declined 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". As the American team later won the gold medal at the championships and thus qualified to the Olympics, she would have been ineligible to qualify a nominative spot on the World Cup series had she competed in Doha. In November, USAG announced that Carey would be competing at the
Cottbus World Cup. She qualified second to the vault final behind
Rebeca Andrade of
Brazil and first to the floor exercise final. During event finals Carey won silver on vault, once again behind Andrade, and fifth on floor exercise after stepping out of bounds three times.
2019 In February,
USA Gymnastics announced that Carey would compete at the
Baku and
Doha World Cups in March. In Baku, Carey qualified in first place to the vault final after upgrading her
López (start value 5.2) to a
Cheng (start value 6.0) and qualified second to the floor exercise final behind
Lara Mori of
Italy after going out of bounds and performing a watered down routine. She received the
AGF Trophy for having the highest combined execution score in the qualification round. Carey won the gold medal in the vault final and was the only gymnast to earn execution scores above nine on both of her vaults. The following day, she competed in the floor exercise final with higher difficulty and won the gold medal ahead of Mori and three-time Olympian
Vanessa Ferrari. At the
Doha World Cup, Carey qualified to the vault final in second place behind
Maria Paseka and first to the floor exercise final, 0.8 points ahead of second place
Marine Boyer of France and
Kim Bui of Germany. In the vault final, Carey won the gold medal, defeating Paseka by 0.117 points. Once again she was the only competitor to earn an execution score above 9 on both of her vaults. In the floor exercise final, Carey once again won the gold medal ahead of Mori and Ferrari, defeating them by more than one point. At the
2019 GK US Classic in July, Carey placed tenth in the all-around. She won the gold medal on vault ahead of
Aleah Finnegan and
Shilese Jones and she tied with
Grace McCallum for the silver medal on floor exercise behind
Simone Biles. She placed fifteenth on uneven bars and tied for seventeenth on balance beam with Alexis Jeffrey. At the
2019 U.S. National Championships Carey competed on all four events and ended the first day of competition in third in the all-around behind Biles and
Sunisa Lee. On the second day of competition she fell off the uneven bars and finished seventh in the all-around but won silver on vault and floor exercise, finishing behind Biles on both. As a result she was added to the national team for the third time. In September Carey competed at the US World Championships trials where she placed fifth in the all-around behind
Simone Biles,
Sunisa Lee,
Kara Eaker, and
MyKayla Skinner. The following day she was named to the team to compete at the
2019 World Championships in
Stuttgart alongside Biles, Lee, Eaker, Skinner, and
Grace McCallum. During
qualifications she helped the USA qualify to the team final in first place over five points ahead of second place China. Individually she qualified to the vault final in first place ahead of Biles and recorded the second highest floor exercise score, behind Biles and tied with Lee. However, due to Lee receiving a higher execution score, Carey did not qualify to the floor exercise final due to the rule limiting individual finals to two competitors per country. In the
team final, Carey competed on vault and floor exercise, receiving the second highest scores of the day on each, behind Biles, and helping the USA win the gold medal ahead of Russia and Italy. During the
vault final Carey performed a
Cheng and an
Amanar, taking a step out of bounds on the latter, earning an average score of 14.883 and winning the silver medal behind Biles and ahead of
Ellie Downie of Great Britain. In November Carey traveled to
Zürich, Switzerland to compete at the
Swiss Cup, a unique team competition that featured one female gymnast and one male gymnast from the same country going head-to-head with other teams. She was partnered with
Allan Bower. Together they finished in first place, beating the Ukrainian team of
Diana Varinska and
Oleg Verniaiev.
2020 In late January Carey was listed on a nominative roster that was released for the
Melbourne World Cup, scheduled to take place on February 20. She qualified in first place to both the vault and floor exercise event finals, 0.833 points ahead of
Shoko Miyata and 0.633 points ahead of
Vanessa Ferrari respectively. During the vault final she competed the
Cheng and
double twisting Yurchenko and won gold ahead of
Coline Devillard of France. The following day she won gold on floor exercise as well, once again finishing ahead of Ferrari.
2021 In February Carey competed at the
2021 Winter Cup where she only competed on vault, uneven bars, and balance beam. She finished second on vault behind
Jordan Chiles, sixth on uneven bars, and ninth on balance beam. The following month at a National Team camp Carey was named to the National Team for the fourth time. In May Carey competed at the
U.S. Classic on only the uneven bars and balance beam. She finished fifth and fifteenth respectively. During podium training for the
National Championships Carey debuted a laid out version of the
Biles II (triple twisting double salto). At the National Championships Carey finished sixth in the all-around after competing a watered-down floor exercise routine and vault. She finished fourth on vault, eighth on uneven bars and floor exercise, and eleventh on balance beam. As a result she was added to the national team and qualified to compete at the
Olympic Trials. At the Olympic Trials Carey competed all-around the first day of competition and only competed on uneven bars and balance beam the second day. Days after trials had concluded Carey was officially awarded an Olympic berth via the
Apparatus World Cup series.
2020 Olympics At the
Olympic Games, Carey performed the all-around during qualifications. She hit all four routines and qualified for the vault final in second place behind
Simone Biles as well as the floor exercise final in third place behind
Vanessa Ferrari and Biles. Despite finishing ninth in qualifications, she initially did not qualify to the all-around final due to two-per-country limitations as Biles and
Sunisa Lee placed higher. However, Biles later withdrew from the all-around final, and Carey, as the next-highest scoring American, took her place. During the
all-around final Carey recorded the second highest vault (behind
Rebeca Andrade) and floor exercise (behind
Mai Murakami and tied with
Angelina Melnikova) scores; however she fell off the balance beam and finished eighth overall. In the
vault final, Carey was a heavy medal favorite but finished in last place after balking her first vault due to missteps on the runway; she had intended to perform a Cheng vault but performed only a tucked Yurchenko, a vault with a difficulty score of just 3.3. She went on to successfully perform her second vault, an Amanar with a difficulty of 5.8, but was deducted two points for performing two vaults with the same entry, finishing with an average score of 12.416, more than two full points behind the seventh finisher. The following day, Carey won the gold medal in the
floor exercise final with a score of 14.366, outperforming her qualifications score of 14.100 and placing ahead of Italy's
Vanessa Ferrari. She is the third consecutive American champion on the event, following
Aly Raisman in 2012 and
Simone Biles in 2016. Upon returning home to Arizona, Phoenix Mayor
Kate Gallego proclaimed August 17 as "Jade Carey Day". Days later it was announced that Carey would be joining
Simone Biles'
Gold Over America Tour. On August 30 Carey threw the
ceremonial first pitch for the
Arizona Diamondbacks.
2022 Carey made her elite return at the
U.S. National Championships in August. She placed fifth in the all-around, first on vault, second on floor exercise behind
Shilese Jones, seventh on balance beam, and ninth on uneven bars. She was named to the national team for the sixth time. Additionally she was named
USA Gymnastics Athlete of the Year. In September Carey competed at the
Paris World Challenge Cup; she only competed on vault and balance beam. She qualified to the vault final in first and the balance beam final in second behind teammate
Shilese Jones. During event finals she won gold on vault and silver on balance beam behind
Marine Boyer of France. In October Carey was selected to compete at the
2022 World Championships alongside
Skye Blakely,
Jordan Chiles,
Shilese Jones, and
Leanne Wong. During the qualification round Carey helped the USA qualify to the team final in first place. Individually she qualified to the all-around, vault, and floor exercise finals. During the team final Carey contributed scores on vault, balance beam, and floor exercise towards the USA's gold medal finish. Additionally she posted the second highest vault and floor exercise scores of the competition behind
Rebeca Andrade and
Jessica Gadirova respectively. During the all-around final Carey placed sixth after a tentative balance beam routine. On the first day of apparatus finals Carey won gold on vault, earning her first individual world title. On the final day of competition she won bronze on floor exercise, tied with Andrade and behind Gadirova and Chiles. With eight world and Olympic medals Carey became the sixth most decorated American female artistic gymnast of all time.
2023 In September, Carey won the bronze medal for vault at the
U.S. National Championships. During the competition she was paired with
Yul Moldauer. Together they placed first, each winning their second Swiss Cup.
2024 Carey began the season competing at the American Classic where she placed first in the all-around. She next competed at the
Core Hydration Classic where she placed fourth in the all-around behind
Simone Biles,
Shilese Jones, and
Jordan Chiles; she won gold on vault. At the
National Championships Carey placed seventh in the all-around and third on vault. As a result she qualified to the
Olympic trials. At the Olympic trials Carey placed fourth in the all-around, first on vault, eighth on uneven bars, sixth on balance beam, and second on floor exercise. As a result, she was selected to represent the
United States at the 2024 Summer Olympics alongside Biles, Chiles,
Sunisa Lee, and
Hezly Rivera.
2024 Olympics During the
qualification round, Carey competed only on floor exercise and vault. During her floor exercise routine, she experienced uncharacteristic mistakes and balked her last pass, resulting in a score of 10.633. She later explained that she had not been feeling well the past few days leading up to qualifications and therefore had depleted energy. Right after floor exercise, the team competed on vault where Carey bounced back and competed two clean vaults which advanced her to the vault final in third place; additionally the United States qualified to the team final in first place. During the
team final, Carey contributed a score of 14.800 on vault towards the team's first place finish, earning the United States their fourth overall Olympic team gold medal. In the
vault final, she scored a 14.466 to win the bronze, her third Olympic medal. == Collegiate gymnastics career ==