American Jade Carey strikes gold in women's floor exercise final
Italy's Ferrari takes silver, Japan's Murakami and ROC's Melnikova share bronze
American Jade Carey has captured gold in the women's floor exercise final at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre on Monday in Tokyo.
The 21-year-old scored 14.366 in the event.
Italy's Vanessa Ferrari finished second with a score of 14.200, while Japan's Mai Murakami and Russian Olympic Committee's Angelina Melnikova shared the bronze medal with a score of 14.166 each.
Carey took the stage early and set the bar too high for the remaining competition. One by one, they came within tenths of a point to Carey but were unable to touch her score.
The difference was the points Carey received for degree of difficulty, as she was the lone gymnast to touch the six-plus mark (6.300) in that category. All the others, aside from Russian Viktoriia Listunova, finished with better execution scores than Carey.
Brazil's Rebeca Andrade, who claimed gold in the women's vault final, finished fifth with a score of 14.033.
Great Britain's Jennifer Gadirova, who replaced Simone Biles, finished seventh.
Biles withdrew from the event on Saturday.
Roller-coaster 24 hours
Carey traveled the world for a spot in the Olympics. Germany. Qatar. Azerbaijan. Australia.
A lot of long flights. A little bit of jet lag. One unrelenting vision of what could be possible.
She wasn't going to let a little thing like a sticky patch of carpet get in her way.
The 21-year-old American gymnast soared to gold in the women's floor exercise, her powerful and precise routine capping a roller-coaster 24 hours in which she narrowly avoided serious injury during the vault finals when her right foot caught just as she was preparing her entry.
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Carey's score of 14.366 gave the U.S. women's team its fifth medal of the Games and assured that each of the six athletes who came to Tokyo — Carey, Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, Grace McCallum and MyKayla Skinner.
Considered one of the favourites after coming in second during vault qualifying, Carey was thundering down the blue runway Sunday when she tripped. Her planned Cheng vault instead became a simple back tuck, her medal chances evaporating in the process.
Stunned, she recovered in time to complete her second vault but finished well off the podium before quietly retreating to the waiting arms of her father Brian, her lifelong coach, and the comfort of her teammates.
'She killed it'
Knowing his daughter had less than a day to regroup in time for the floor finals, Brian Carey turned off the "coach" switch and flipped on the "dad" one.
"I told her, `You know, right now, you feel like yesterday was the worst day in your life, but today can be your best day. So just don't give up. Keep going,"' Carey said. "And she killed it."
Stomped it, more like.
Carey doesn't leap off the floor as much as she explodes. Her tumbling is as dynamic as anyone in the world not named Simone Biles, and she's working on a triple-twisting double-layout element that — if she ever completes it in international competition — will be given the single-highest difficulty value of anything currently being done in the sport.
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.
With files from the Associated Press
