Post by Admin on Aug 3, 2021 5:17:41 GMT
While it’s not quite ready to be unveiled when it counts, Carey also didn’t need it. A day after her meandering road to the Ariake Gymnastics Centre nearly ended in disaster, she responded with what she called the best routine of her career.
Carey could hear teammates roaring from the stands during her routine, Biles perhaps the loudest of them all.
“They were honestly the best teammates ever, especially (Sunday) night,” Carey said.
Even if they aren’t teammates, at least, not technically. Carey earned a spot in Tokyo by taking advantage of what turned out to be a one-time-only offer by the International Gymnastics Federation. The sport’s governing body made a provision for the 2020 Games that allowed athletes to lock up an individual nominative spot if they racked up enough points at World Cup events.
So the Careys spent 16 months flying to different continents, piling up podiums on vault and floor exercise along the way. They formally accepted the spot on the eve of the U.S. Olympic Trials, even though they knew it meant she was giving up a shot at making the four-woman team that ended up winning silver during the team competition last week.
Sound confusing? It is. The FIG has already abandoned the practice and is returning the team sizes to five women per country for the 2024 Games in Paris.
Yet all the paperwork and the politics and the patience paid off with a performance that brought her teammates to their feet and her father to near tears.
“It was definitely hard sometimes,” Jade Carey said. “I’m really glad that we stuck with our decision and did what we did. It was for the better.”
Vanessa Ferrari of Italy earned silver, the 30-year-old’s first Olympic medal after near misses in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and London in 2012. Her dramatic routine — one that would fit right in at La Scala opera house in Milan — gave Italy its first women’s gymnastics medal since 1928 and capped a long comeback from a torn Achilles tendon four years ago.
“I am super happy with this medal,” said Ferrari, who is considering retirement. “I was hoping this would finally be my Olympics.”
Angelina Melnikova of the team representing the Russian Olympic Committee and Mai Murakami of Japan were awarded the bronze after finishing with identical scores. Their 14.166 included the same difficulty (5.9) and execution scores (8.266). The medal was the third in Tokyo for Melnikova, who earned gold in the team competition and bronze in the all-around.
Shin Jeah-wan of Korea beat ROC’s Denis Abliazin in a tiebreaker to claim gold on men’s vault. The gold is the 10th for Korea in gymnastics and fifth on vault. Shin won the tiebreak because he recorded the highest-scoring single vault between the two. Artur Davytyan of Armenia took bronze.
Carey could hear teammates roaring from the stands during her routine, Biles perhaps the loudest of them all.
“They were honestly the best teammates ever, especially (Sunday) night,” Carey said.
Even if they aren’t teammates, at least, not technically. Carey earned a spot in Tokyo by taking advantage of what turned out to be a one-time-only offer by the International Gymnastics Federation. The sport’s governing body made a provision for the 2020 Games that allowed athletes to lock up an individual nominative spot if they racked up enough points at World Cup events.
So the Careys spent 16 months flying to different continents, piling up podiums on vault and floor exercise along the way. They formally accepted the spot on the eve of the U.S. Olympic Trials, even though they knew it meant she was giving up a shot at making the four-woman team that ended up winning silver during the team competition last week.
Sound confusing? It is. The FIG has already abandoned the practice and is returning the team sizes to five women per country for the 2024 Games in Paris.
Yet all the paperwork and the politics and the patience paid off with a performance that brought her teammates to their feet and her father to near tears.
“It was definitely hard sometimes,” Jade Carey said. “I’m really glad that we stuck with our decision and did what we did. It was for the better.”
Vanessa Ferrari of Italy earned silver, the 30-year-old’s first Olympic medal after near misses in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and London in 2012. Her dramatic routine — one that would fit right in at La Scala opera house in Milan — gave Italy its first women’s gymnastics medal since 1928 and capped a long comeback from a torn Achilles tendon four years ago.
“I am super happy with this medal,” said Ferrari, who is considering retirement. “I was hoping this would finally be my Olympics.”
Angelina Melnikova of the team representing the Russian Olympic Committee and Mai Murakami of Japan were awarded the bronze after finishing with identical scores. Their 14.166 included the same difficulty (5.9) and execution scores (8.266). The medal was the third in Tokyo for Melnikova, who earned gold in the team competition and bronze in the all-around.
Shin Jeah-wan of Korea beat ROC’s Denis Abliazin in a tiebreaker to claim gold on men’s vault. The gold is the 10th for Korea in gymnastics and fifth on vault. Shin won the tiebreak because he recorded the highest-scoring single vault between the two. Artur Davytyan of Armenia took bronze.