After qualifying controversy, Jade Carey wins gold in the floor exercise

Jade Carey takes home a gold medal in the floor final at the Tokyo Olympics after qualifying under new rules implemented by the International Gymnastics Federation. 

After a long, drawn out process of getting to Tokyo off of a new qualifying system, Jade Carey took the highest spot on the podium with the heaviest medal draped around her neck. Carey rounded out with the gold in the floor final, but not without overcoming her own bout of adversity just 24 hours before.

Carey faced a nasty trip in the vault, resulting in her closing out in eighth place overall. The Phoenix-native walked off in tears, which had people questioning how she’d return the following day for the Floor exercise. Long story short, there was no need to worry at all.

Carey closed out with a score of 14.366, placing her in first place for the Floor and landing her a first-time gold medal

When Simone Biles pulled out of the individual all-around, there were questions on whether Carey and Suni Lee would be able to fill the void left by their teammate. This, partnered with the new qualification rules implemented by the International Gymnastics Federation made for a lot of controversy for the 21-year old.

https://twitter.com/TeamUSA/status/1422144616254476290

The qualifying rules, as reported by ESPN, do not have to be built off of scores from worlds or the Olympics, but rather scores acquired by the World Cup series. This gives power to the athletes on whether they choose to go to the Olympics or not, which is huge change from selecting athletes as previously done in the past.

There were questions on whether Carey would be able to live up to the expectations, especially off of a new implementation of qualifying rules. Well… let’s ask the gold medalist on whether she’s lived up to the expectations or not.