Olympic gold medalist Jade Carey announces return to elite gymnastics

Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Jade Carey announced Wednesday she’s returning to elite gymnastics.

The 21-year-old Carey, who is finishing up her first year at Oregon State, has enjoyed a standout freshman season that was recently highlighted by her all-around win at the NCAA Seattle Regionals. She posted a career-best score of 39.850 and qualified as an individual all-arounder for the NCAA championships set for April 14-16 in Fort Worth, Texas.

“I am excited to announce that I will be pursuing elite gymnastics while remaining dedicated to my GymBeav family,” Carey wrote in an Instagram post Wednesday. “I felt it was important for this announcement to come from me as I just accepted my invitation to national team camp.”

The Phoenix, Ariz., native joined the Beavers’ program last fall after deferring enrollment to train for the Tokyo Olympics.

“NCAA gymnastics is and continues to be an incredible experience,” she wrote. “I’m looking forward to competing and representing Oregon State at nationals next week. I wouldn’t be here in this moment without my beaver family. Their endless love and support pushes and inspires me to be a better version of myself.”

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Carey, winner of four world championships medals including team gold in 2019, is one of four gymnasts from the 2020 U.S. Olympic women’s team who now compete in college along with Tokyo teammates Jordan Chiles (UCLA), Sunisa Lee (Auburn) and Grace McCallum (Utah). They will reunite next week in Fort Worth, where they’ll be joined by 2020 Olympic alternates Leanne Wong (Florida) and Kara Eaker (Utah).

Lee, the reigning Olympic all-around gold medalist, was key to Auburn making its first NCAA championships appearance since 2016,