How many NCAA medals has Oregon State's Jade Carey won? A look at gymnast's collegiate career as she sets for title defense at Paris Olympics 2024

By Zahid Rashid Dar

Modified Jul 04, 2024 19:13 GMT

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Jade Carey is the reigning Olympic champion in the floor exercise, and following the U.S. gymnastics Olympic Trials, she booked her place for the upcoming Paris Olympic Games. She scored 111.350 to secure fourth place and was later named to the five-member Team USA for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Carey won her first NCAA medal, silver, at the 2022 NCAA Championships on uneven bars. She won the silver medal again at the 2023 NCAA Championships but on the balance beam and the following year, the 24-year-old secured two silver medals in all-around and floor competition. She also won the bronze medal on the balance beam, totaling six NCAA medals.

She made her elite debut at the 2017 American Classic, but it wasn't until 2021 that she joined the college. The 24-year-old earlier intended to join Oregon State University in 2018 but deferred it to focus on the Tokyo Olympics, where she won the gold medal in floor exercise.

The Olympic medalist finally made it to OSU in the fall of 2021 and joined the gymnastics team. She made her NCAA debut in January 2022 in a tri-meet against Washington and San Jose State. Carey competed on all four apparatuses to amass an all-around score of 39.650, the best being 9.95 on uneven bars.

Carey was named Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year and Freshman of the Year in 2022. She secured the all-around title in the Pac-12 Championships 2022. The following year, she was named Gymnast of the Year once again while also winning the all-around and floor titles for the second straight season.

In the 2024 Pac-12 Championships, the 24-year-old secured the floor title and also co-won the uneven bars gold.

Jade Carey feels her college experience has been different because of the Tokyo Olympics

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Jade Carey envisioned a normal college life before deferring the decision to join OSU after the Tokyo Olympics. After she returned from the Games as an Olympic champion, her college life turned out to be ‘just different’.

“I think it’s a little bit different than what I envisioned when I first committed to coming here because the Olympics weren’t really on my mind [then]; I was just ready to come in as a normal college student," Carey told Apartmenttherapy.com.

"But ever since being here and [now training] for another Olympics, I feel like it’s put — not really a stop to a normal college experience, it’s just different."

Instead of in-person classes, Jade Carey has taken virtual classes on Zoom.