Olympic and future Oregon State gymnast Jade Carey won the gold medal for floor exercise in Tokyo at the delayed 2020 Olympic games in the early hours of Aug. 2. 

Carey, who was representing the United States at the Olympics, finished with a score of 14.366 points, edging out Vanessa Ferrari of Italy who scored 14.200 points to take home the silver. Mai Murakami of Japan finished out the podium with her score of 14.166 to secure the bronze for Japan. 

Carey qualified for the floor exercise finals with a score of 14.100, the third-best score in the qualifiers in Tokyo. Her score was only behind Ferrari, who scored a 14.166, and Simone Biles of the United States who scored a 14.133. Biles, however, dropped out of the finals before it began due to personal mental health concerns. 

Carey also qualified for the vault finals in Tokyo and participated in the all-around finals on last minute notice after Biles dropped out. In both other finals, however, crucial mistakes docked her points and prevented her from medaling, despite being one of the favorites. 

Carey had little preparation for the all-around finals, only being selected to participate after Biles dropped out of the competition on short notice, as Carey had the third best all-around score on Team USA during the qualification stage. A country can only have two representatives in the final at most so Carey had been kept out initially. 

Carey finished in 8th in the 24-person field in the all-around finals, with a score of 54.199, less than the score of 56.265 she had in qualifying. She did have the second highest score of all gymnasts in both vault and floor in the all around finals though, showcasing what was to come. 

Gold in the all-around finals went to the other competing American, Suni Lee with a score of 57.433. Silver went to Rebeca Andrade of Brazil with a score of 57.298, and Angelina Melnikova of the Russian Olympic Committee took bronze after scoring 57.199. 

In vault, Carey had also qualified with the second-best score in the qualifiers in Tokyo, with a score of 15.166. She once again finished behind Biles, with a score of 15.183. 

In the finals, Carey finished in 8th and last place with a score of 12.416 after a crucial misstep in the run-up to her first vault led to her not getting enough height to perform a trick safely. Andrade took gold in the vault exercise with a 15.083 score. MyKayla Skinner of the United States took silver with a score of 14.916 after replacing Biles, and Yeo Seojong of South Korea took bronze with a 14.733 score. 

Carey was part of Team USA in Tokyo but she was not allowed to compete in the team competition that the United States took silver in due to Olympic Rules, as she had qualified individually for the games.

Carey has been committed to Oregon State since 2017, but had deferred joining the program until after the Olympics to focus on training for the games instead. 

Now that her participation in the Olympics has concluded, Carey is expected to come to Corvallis and join the Beaver Gym program in the fall. 

Beaver fans can thus look forward to watching an Olympic gold medalist of their own perform in Gill Coliseum for years to come.