Rebeca Andrade never had an easy path, but this Brazilian quickly learned to jump high and her flight seems to have no limits. After making history in Tokyo, she leaves Paris as her country’s greatest Olympic medallist and applauded by superstar Simone Biles
The 25-year-old gymnast completed another brilliant Games on Monday by winning gold on the floor, raising her haul to four in Paris 2024 and leaving her total at six, three years after having paved the way in Tokyo 2020 with the first two medals for a female gymnast from her country.
With a gold in the vault and a silver in the all-around, the young São Paulo native was one of the stars of those atypical Games against a Biles impaired by the “twisties”, a phenomenon that causes gymnasts to lose their sense of direction in the air and which forced her to give up on most events.
And in Paris, with the American back, the flight has not dropped.
After leading Brazil to a historic bronze in the team final, Andrade won two silver medals in the all-around and vault competitions before finally taking the coveted gold on August 5, beating Biles in the floor final.
“Rebecca is amazing, she’s a queen,” said the American star. “It’s always fun to watch her and with all the fans cheering for her, it was the right thing to do,” he said of the Brazilian’s victory, whom he does not hesitate to point out as his most fearsome competitor.
– Inspiration –
Followed by nearly nine million people on Instagram and an inspiration to a new generation of Brazilian gymnasts, Andrade also knows what it’s like to have a country watching her.
“I just learned about Rebeca Andrade’s gold on the floor, her fourth medal in Paris. Congratulations to our greatest Olympic medalist in history,” President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wrote on social media on Monday.
The spotlight does not scare this young woman who knows well that the road to success is full of obstacles.
“I know it is a responsibility, but I don’t feel pressured and I don’t feel it as a burden, because I know I am not obliged to return to my country with medals.“he said in an interview with AFP in May.
Andrade was born in Guarulhos, on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, in a humble home supported by his mother, Rosa Santos, a domestic worker with eight children.
A social project in her city took her to a gym when she was four years old, where she immediately attracted attention.
“She had no patience to stand still. You couldn’t put on music because she would immediately start dancing and imitating a floor series of the older girls,” recalled her first coach, Monica Barroso dos Anjos.
Her attendance at training sessions was at risk due to a lack of money for transportation. But seeing her ability, her older brothers offered to accompany her on a two-hour walk.
She was soon nicknamed “Daianinha de Guarulhos”, in reference to Daiane dos Santos, the first Brazilian gymnast to win a world championship (2003) and her great inspiration. Still a child, she went to train for a season in Curitiba (south), before making the jump to Flamengo in Rio de Janeiro.
– Perseverance –
Her promising career was almost cut short on several occasions by complicated knee injuries that forced her to undergo surgery three times between 2015 and 2019.
But at the height of a process full of uncertainty, a certain Simone Biles, then already the queen of gymnastics, told her during the 2018 World Championships not to give up, that she had talent.
“I was sitting down, she was passing by and, out of nowhere, she sat down next to me and said that to me. I was super happy, and I said to myself: ‘My God, the best in the world told me not to give up. Now I’m definitely not going to give up,'” she told TV Globo.
After her first surgery, Rebeca managed to make it to Rio de Janeiro-2016, where she finished eleventh in the all-around competition. Luck was on her side in Tokyo, as the postponement due to the pandemic increased her time to recover from a new operation and win in Japan.
More mature, her success in Paris was no surprise. Everyone already knows who Rebeca Andrade is.
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