Jade Carey returns to elite gymnastics at U.S. Championships in Phoenix; 8-for-8 routines

With the 2026 World Gymnastics Championships approaching, Jade Carey is sticking to the plan

Back for a first elite season since Paris, the two-time Olympic champion went 8-for-8 at the U.S. Championships, with her eyes on a slow-and-steady climb.

Jade Carey has a plan, and she is not about to let the internet rush it.

All season, as the Tokyo 2020 Olympic floor exercise champion and Paris 2024 team gold medallist has worked her way back to elite gymnastics for the first time since the Games, the same note has kept surfacing online: where are the upgrades? The more difficult vault, the harder tumbling passes?

None of it has moved her timeline.

“Vault, Cheng, we’ll get right to it,” she said at the U.S. Championships in her hometown of Phoenix. “It’s just a little bit rushed for this meet.”

The plan runs through World Selection Camp, set for 29 September-1 October, where the U.S. picks its team for October’s World Championships, and, further out, toward the Olympic Games LA28 .

Carey is setting the pace and sticking to it.

At the U.S. Championships, that meant hitting everything and feeling comfortable.

“I’m just proud of hitting 8-for-8 routines and just improving from the last meet and continuing to build from here,” she said. “Overall, it’s a step in the right direction for me, building up to World Selection Camp.”

Her father and coach, Brian Carey, laid out the choice months ago.

They could build to full difficulty by August and then scale back down before a final push at the end of season.

They chose the second option: to build slowly and keep building into the Selection Camp and, hopefully, the World Championships.

“What we’re building towards, she can already do,” Brian Carey told Olympics.com following the U.S. Classic. “So, we just need to pace her out.”

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PARIS, FRANCE - JULY 30: Sunisa Lee of Team United States reacts with teammate Jade Carey following her routine on the balance beam during the Artistic Gymnastics Women’s Team Final on day four of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on July 30, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Jamie Squire

The long game: “We’re just really trying to build smartly”

Carey, 25, is progressing deliberately, and she is not shy about why. For her first season back, the point is not to peak now.

“Just being my first year back, we’re just really trying to build smartly and safely and get me to a place where I’m going to be healthy for the next two or three years,” she said.

That patience means holding some difficulty back. The upgrades she wants, a bigger vault and a harder floor, are on the way, and she’s not worried.

“I’m not quite there,” Carey said of where her gymnastics is against where she wants it to be, ultimately, when the LA28 season arrives. “I obviously want to upgrade floor and vault, and that will come with just the time back in the sport. I feel like I haven’t been really, really back in it in a long time.”

For now, the focus is clear.

“Bars and beam, probably just keeping the consistency and getting cleaner,” she said. “And floor, we have some options that we’re going to play around with.”

Jade Carey: “I thought after the Olympics I would be done”

Tokyo 2020 Olympic floor exercise gold medallist Jade Carey of the United States is heading back to elite training and competition, motivated by two mistakes at the Games and a desire to continue to improve in the sport.

Jade Carey takes on veteran role

Carey has become one of the veterans of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team, the one the younger gymnasts can lean on, and she traces it to the same place from which the comeback sparked in the first place.

“It just stems from the love that I have for the sport and the people that I’m around,” she said. " I want everyone to have a positive experience and know that I am someone that they can come to if they need it … always lending a hand, cheering for them when I can, and knowing that I’m there for them."

She has watched it pay off in Hezly Rivera , the 18-year-old who says Carey helped steady her in Paris. Rivera defended her national all-around title in Phoenix after a first-night stumble.

“Hezly did a fantastic job… rebounding from night one and just proving to herself and everybody else that that was just a little fluke,” Carey said. “Back-to-back national champion is something that she should be really proud of.”

Two years ago, Carey said, the message to Rivera - a surprise Olympic teammate in 2024 - was “You got this, you belong here.”

Now, that belief has more than taken hold.

" You can tell she knows she’s here for business, and she’s going to be great ," Carey said. " That’s cool to really see from the other side ."

Carey has said she sees LA28 as the end of her gymnastics journey , a home Games to go out on. Getting there, and having the chance to enjoy it, is the whole point of her carefully managed 2026.

“Honestly, kind of sounds cliché, but doing it for me and just for the love of the sport that I have,” she said. " I am still in a place where I’m physically and mentally able to do what I love .”

Picture by 2024 Getty Images