Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles are planning to be the first U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics team members from Tokyo to return to elite competition.
Carey and Chiles plan to compete at the national championships in Tampa in three weeks in hopes of making the five-woman team for this fall’s world championships.
Carey and Chiles, along with Olympic teammates Suni Lee and Grace McCallum, competed last winter and spring in NCAA gymnastics, which is different from elite.
Carey, the Olympic floor exercise champion, and Chiles, part of the silver-medal-winning Olympic team, took part in a USA Gymnastics national team camp two weeks after the NCAA Championships in April. That signaled their intent to return to elite competition.
Carey took part in another camp in early July, along with the Olympic all-around champion Lee, who will not return to elite competition before 2023.
Simone Biles and McCallum left the door open for returns at some point before the 2024 Paris Olympics but have not taken part in any camps since Tokyo. MyKayla Skinner is the lone member of the team to announce a retirement.
Neither Carey nor Chiles entered this Saturday’s U.S. Classic, a tune-up meet for many (but not all) gymnasts with eyes on nationals in Tampa next month.
The last U.S. Olympic women’s artistic gymnastics team members to return for the following year’s nationals were McKayla Maroney and Kyla Ross in 2013.
NBC Sports’ Sarah Hughes (not the figure skater) contributed to this report.
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