The squad of Simone Biles, Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera finished in first at the subdivision 2 qualifying on Sunday.
NOTE: Spoiler alert below. Women's gymnastics qualifications will air again in primetime starting at 7 p.m. on NBC 5
Reigning Olympic floor champion Jade Carey had a scary moment during her debut at the 2024 Paris Olympics early Sunday morning. Carey was on the last pass of her routine, where she performs a punch front through to double back, when she bailed out of the final skill. She only performed a back tuck, and the momentum from the balk sent her flying off the floor.
The fall meant Carey will not be able to defend her title in the floor event, which she won gold in at the Tokyo Games.
After the competition concluded, Carey spoke exclusively with Scott Bregman from Olympics.com, where she shared she has been fighting an illness.
"I just have not been feeling well the past few days and haven't been able to eat or anything," Carey said following Sunday's opening day of the women's competition. "I had, like, no energy today and didn't really have a sense of what was going on in my head. So, I just kind of wanted people to know that so, they know that there's actually something wrong."
Carey's father, who is also her coach, missed podium training on Thursday, July 25, due to an illness, USA Gymnastics announced via twitter.
Carey ended floor a score of 10.633.
Shortly after her troubling fall, Carey stepped up to the vault.
She went on to nail her vault routine in a stunning reversal from her previous Olympic appearance -- all while her mom, a former gymnast herself, watched with intense emotion.
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Completing both passes, with a sigh of relief, Carey saw a vault score of 14.433.
And that relief was visible as her mother, Danielle Mitchell-Greenberg, screamed, then quickly burst into tears from the stands.
The performance helped Team USA as they secured their spot in the women's gymnastics team all-around finals.
The squad of Simone Biles, Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Carey and Hezly Rivera produced the high total score of 172.296 at the subdivision 2 qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics on Sunday.
The U.S. was followed by Italy (166.861), China (166.628), Great Britain (160.830), and Romania (159.497).
Four gymnasts from each team perform each event, with the lowest score in the group being dropped. The teams with the eight highest scores across five subdivisions advance to the final.
The U.S., which took silver in the team final at the Tokyo Olympics, had the top three all-around performers with Biles (59.566), Lee (56.132) and Chiles (56.065).
Lee's score qualifies her for the Olympic all-around final by 67 thousandths of a point over Chiles.
The women's team final is at 11:15 a.m. CT on Tuesday, July 30 at 12:15 p.m. It will air on NBC and Peacock. Individual finals will be held between Thursday, Aug. 1 and Monday, Aug. 5.
