U.S. gymnast Jade Carey has opened up about battling an undisclosed illness that affected her performance during the gymnastics qualifying round at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Carey explained that the illness had left her unable to eat or regain her energy in the days leading up to the competition. She wanted to clarify the situation to avoid speculation that nerves were the cause of her uncharacteristically poor performance on the floor exercise.

Carey's coach and father, Brian Carey, had also missed the team's podium training due to not feeling well, as announced by USA Gymnastics earlier. Despite her struggles, Carey gave her all in the competition, stating on X (previously known as Twitter), "I haven't been feeling the best the past few days but I gave it everything I had today. Thank you for all the support I have received. I'm so grateful."

During Sunday's qualifying round, Carey participated in two events: the floor exercise and the vault. While she displayed excellent performance on the vault with an average score of 14.433 across two attempts, guaranteeing her a spot in the eight-woman final on the apparatus, she faced significant challenges on the floor exercise. As the defending Olympic gold medalist in the event from the 2021 Tokyo Games, Carey struggled with multiple hops out of bounds during tumbling passes and an awkward final pass that almost led her off the mat. Her execution score plummeted to 6.433 out of 10, with nine-tenths of a point deducted. This resulted in her overall floor exercise score of 10.633, ranking last amongst all the participants in the qualifying sessions.

It appears that the USA Gymnastics staff was aware of Carey's illness before Sunday's competition. When asked about Carey's performance on the floor exercise, U.S. technical lead Chellsie Memmel stated, "I know because I've been with the team, but that's Jade's story to tell."

In the qualifying round, teams can drop the lowest score on each apparatus, allowing Team USA to overlook Carey's disappointing floor exercise performance. However, the team will not have this option in the team final, taking place on Tuesday night in Paris. In the final, all the scores count, presenting a challenge for Carey if she is still feeling ill. In such a scenario, Suni Lee, along with Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles, is expected to represent Team USA on both the floor exercise and vault. Hezly Rivera, the 16-year-old member of the team, is set to compete in the balance beam and uneven bars.

Midway through the qualifying round, there were concerns about Simone Biles' participation due to her experiencing pain in her left calf. However, Biles continued competing, and her coach, Cecile Landi, reassured that there are no worries about her ability to compete in the coming days.

As Jade Carey battles through her illness, fans and supporters eagerly await her recovery and hope to see her perform at her best in the upcoming finals.