FILE – In this Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021, file photo, U.S. Olympic gold medal gymnast and incoming Oregon State student Jade Carey waves to the crowd during a timeout in the first half of an NCAA college football game between Oregon State and Hawaii in Corvallis, Ore. Carey is finally embarking on her freshman year at Oregon State, after taking a somewhat winding route to Corvallis. Then again, the 21-year-old Olympic gold medalist is used to taking the non-traditional path.
FILE – In this Aug. 2, 2021, file photo, Jade Carey, of the United States, performs on the floor during the artistic gymnastics women’s apparatus final at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. Carey is finally embarking on her freshman year at Oregon State, after taking a somewhat winding route to Corvallis. Then again, the 21-year-old Olympic gold medalist is used to taking the non-traditional path.
FILE – In this Aug. 2, 2021, file photo, Jade Carey, of the United States, poses after winning the gold medal for the floor exercise during the artistic gymnastics women’s apparatus final at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. Carey is finally embarking on her freshman year at Oregon State, after taking a somewhat winding route to Corvallis. Then again, the 21-year-old Olympic gold medalist is used to taking the non-traditional path.
CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) — Jade Carey is finally embarking on her freshman year at Oregon State, after taking a somewhat winding route to Corvallis.
Then again, the 21-year-old Olympic gold medalist is used to taking the nontraditional path.
After reaching the pinnacle of her sport in Tokyo, Carey has honored her commitment to compete for the Beavers, embarking on a new chapter where her elite and collegiate careers are intertwined.
Carey first visited Oregon State in 2015 and committed in 2017. But the plan was to compete in the Olympics and then to focus on school.
“Ever since the first time I visited here, I just fell in love with everything about this town and this campus,” she said last week after arriving on campus. “I’m just especially excited to be part of the gymnastics team. It’s just a really great group of girls and I love the coaches.”
After the coronavirus pandemic pushed back the Olympics by a year, Carey enrolled and took a few classes at Oregon State remotely from her home in Arizona while training.
“I just needed something to do besides just gymnastics,” the kinesiology major said.
She earned her spot at the Olympics in an unusual way, taking advantage of an International Gymnastics Federation provision for the 2020 Games that allowed athletes to lock up an individual berth if they racked up enough points at World Cup events.
