American gymnast Jade Carey rebounded to win gold 24 hours after taking a terrifying stumble at the Olympics

• Team USA's Jade Carey won gold in the women's gymnastics floor exercise on Monday.
• The 21-year-old put together a near-flawless routine to win her first medal of the Tokyo Olympics.
• Just 24 hours before, Carey took a terrifying stumble on the vault and failed to medal in the even.

Jade Carey has the Olympic hardware she's always dreamed of - and it's gold.

The 21-year-old Team USA gymnast shined in the Tokyo Olympics floor exercise final to best Italy's Vanessa Ferrari and Japan's Mai Murakami and finish atop the podium on Monday.

And in a stunning display of resilience, Carey accomplished her gold-medal feat just 24 hours after what her dad and coach, Brian Carey, described as "maybe the worst day of her career."

On Sunday, Carey competed in the women's vault final against fellow American MyKayla Skinner and six other gymnasts from across the globe. The Phoenix, Arizona, native finished second in qualifying on the apparatus, and after international superstar Simone Biles withdrew from the event citing mental health concerns, Carey was the favorite to take home the gold.

But disaster struck for Carey during Sunday's final. She tripped and stumbled on the run-up to her first vault of the event, narrowly avoiding a disaster by bailing on her planned Cheng and instead opting for the much less complicated tucked Yurchenko.

She really had no choice, as the elder Carey pointed out on Monday.

"I told her she had to bail out or she might not be walking right now," he said, according to AP's Will Graves.

-Will Graves (@WillGravesAP) August 2, 2021

Though she landed safely on her feet, Carey took a major hit from the judges. Her 11.933 - thanks to the skill's paltry 3.300 difficulty score - all but assured that she was out of medal contention in the event where she is considered a specialist.

While her next vault was a significant improvement on the first pass, it also fell flat. Thanks to a full two-point penalty, Carey earned a 12.900. Ultimately, she finished eighth of eight gymnasts in the final.

Somehow, Carey managed to bounce back to perform the floor exercise of her dreams a day later. Even without performing the most challenging skills in her arsenal, the future Oregon State Beaver leaned on a 6.300 difficulty score - the only such score higher than a 6.000 in the competition - to best the field on Monday.

Her 8.066 execution score - an improvement on the 7.900 she earned in the qualifying event - didn't hurt, either. She comfortably took the top prize, earning 0.166 points more than the second-place finisher.

The floor exercise gold medal marks the first of Carey's gymnastics career, as she was not one of "The Fighting Four" athletes who won silver for the United States in the team all-around final.

And though she's done with her slate for the Tokyo Games, Carey - and each of the six women's gymnasts selected to compete for Team USA - will return stateside with a medal around her neck.