U.S. gymnast Jade Carey cited an illness for her uncharacteristic performance during the first day of the women’s gymnastics competition on Sunday after she fell backward and out of bounds during the last tumbling pass of her floor routine. It was one of three times she stepped out of bounds, which resulted in a deduction of nearly one point.
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Carey, who won an Olympic gold medal for her floor routine in Tokyo, told Olympics.com that she has “not been feeling well the past few days” and has been unable to eat.
“I had, like, no energy today and didn’t really have a sense of what was going on in my head,” the 24-year-old gymnast said, adding she did not want fans to think nerves had impacted her routine. “I just kind of wanted people to know that, so they know that there’s actually something wrong.”
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Carey did not specify the cause of her ailment but shared a statement on social media explaining that she gave her performance on Sunday “everything” she had. She also thanked fans for the support she received in a post on X Sunday morning.
Carey’s father, gymnastics coach Brian Carey, was reportedly feeling unwell on Thursday, causing him to miss women’s podium training, per USA Gymnastics.
Team USA still advanced to the all-around final, which will take place on Tuesday. Carey’s score of 10.633 means she won’t have the chance to defend her floor title at this year’s Olympics, but she still performed well on the vault, with a score of 14.433, and will likely advance to the final in that event.
Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, and Jordan Chiles currently sit at the top three of the all-around leaderboard, but only Biles and Lee will advance to the all-around final because of the Olympics’ two-athletes-per-country rule. Despite her calf injury, Biles has the highest score thus far, and is expected to continue to participate in the Games.
“There’s actually something wrong”