Gold medalist Jade Carey has strong ties to Alle-Kiski Valley

Long before gymnast Jade Carey won gold with her nearly flawless floor routine Monday at the Tokyo Olympics, the 21-year-old from Arizona nailed a living-room floor routine in the Alle-Kiski Valley during a visit to see relatives.

“We had a huge family room, and from the time she walked in she was tumbling,” great-aunt Linda Ringle of Vandergrift said of Carey’s visit to a relative’s home in Washington Township about a decade ago.

Carey, known affectionately to family members as “Jaderade,” made quite an impression during her family visits to Western Pennsylvania.

“She did cartwheels right through my screen door and busted right through the screen. It bent the frame,” great-aunt Rosemary Yanko, 77, said of one mishap when Carey was 9.

“I said, ‘She’s going to make something of herself with all those cartwheels,’ ” said Yanko, of Bell Township.

Carey’s mother, Danielle Greenberg, said her parents were raised in the area and her mother attended Kiski Area High School.

“My aunts, uncles and cousins still reside in the area, and they have all been supporters and superfans from afar,” Greenberg said.

Many of those relatives stayed up into the wee hours to watch Carey win the individual floor exercise with a score of 14.366.

“She had stumbled on the vault the day before. I was worried. But when she won, I was excited and crying,” Ringle said. “She never quit, and I’m most proud of her accomplishments.”

Grandmother Trish Mitchell, 74, a Vandergrift native who lives in Arizona, added: “We were ecstatic when she won. I spoke to her after she won the gold, and she was very happy and excited and thanked all of us for supporting her.”

Carey, who trains at Arizona Sunrays in Phoenix under her father and coach Brian Carey, plans to attend Oregon State University on a gymnastics scholarship in the fall. She was flying back from Tokyo on Wednesday and was scheduled to appear on “The Today Show” on Thursday morning.