Rebeca Andrade may not be remembered as the woman who beat Simone Biles in her prime, but she came close.
A status that is always enviable when you measure yourself against the most decorated athlete in the history of gymnastics.
But who is the Brazilian gymnast who made the greatest gymnasts of all time sweat at the 2024 Olympics?
Who is Rebeca Andrade?
Andrade was born and raised in a favela outside Sao Paulo.
She suffered three ACL tears in 2015, 2017 and 2019. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to recover in time for the Tokyo Games. But the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the Summer Games back to 2021, and Andrade’s knee has held up well.
She became the first Brazilian to win Olympic medals in artistic gymnastics: gold in vault and silver in the individual all-around. She now has nine world championship medals, including three gold.
How does she compare to Simone Biles?
Biles and Andrade have things in common. They are both very versatile, both extremely clean in their routines and both excel on vault and floor.
Andrade finished second to Biles in qualifying and came extremely close to her American friend in the team final, where she led Brazil to bronze, the country’s first-ever medal in the competition.
Over the years, the rivals have often been close.
They both competed in their first Olympics in Rio in 2016, when Biles won her first all-around gold medal. And when Biles took a break from gymnastics to focus on her mental health, Andrade won the all-around title at the 2022 world championships.
Biles made a comeback last year to reclaim the world all-around title, but Andrade successfully denied her the vault title. In the Belgian city of Antwerp, their mutual respect and admiration was on display when Biles pretended to move an imaginary crown from her head to Andrade’s.
“I know what she went through in Tokyo and I’m very proud to have been able to compete with her,” Andrade said. “She’s just a phenomenon.”
What happened in the women’s gymnastics all-around final?
Andrade finished second to the American superstar on Thursday at the Paris Olympics after an intense women’s gymnastics final that ended with Biles’ phenomenal floor routine on the final rotation.
“Simone is the best and she brings out the best in me,” Andrade said.
The 25-year-old Brazilian overtook Biles midway through the all-around final at the raucous Bercy Arena and had the chance to cause the biggest upset of the Games so far after Biles missed a transition on the uneven bars.
But Biles fought back. She performed a stunning routine on the beam and was incredible on the floor exercise to turn the tables and win a second gold medal in the competition, eight years after her triumph in Rio de Janeiro.
Andrade was unabashed in matching the silver she won behind American Sunisa Lee in 2021. Lee finished third behind Andrade on Thursday.
She was consistent on all four apparatus and capped her night with a stunning floor routine full of energy and elegance. She lost by 1.199 points, one of the tightest margins of victory for Biles at a major international event.
Biles had been nothing short of exceptional, and Andrade a little less extraordinary.
What did Simone Biles have to say about him?
Biles said she had never been so nervous in an all-around final, joking that she didn’t want to compete against Andrade again.
“She’s way too close,” she said. “I’ve never had an athlete that close, so it really put me on the defensive.”
