Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
The gymnast who Simone Biles fears the most is a Black woman from Brazil — Rebeca Andrade.
“Rebeca Andrade. She scares me the most,” Biles said in her documentary, “Simone Biles Rising.”
Andrade, 25, finished second to Biles in the all-around at the 2023 world championships. But she topped Biles in the vault. In a podium moment between the two caught on camera, Biles appeared to remove an imaginary crown from her head and crown Andrade. At those championships in Antwerp, Andrade captured five medals: one gold, three silver and a bronze. In Simone Biles’ absence in 2022, Andrade won the all-around at the gymnastics world championships.
The seemingly unbeatable Biles has admitted that Andrade pushes her to new levels in competition.
Biles has said of Andrade, “I actually love competing with Rebeca. She does push me.”
These two Black women have developed a competitive and supportive relationship that has pushed them to new sporting heights. The relationship will be on display five times during the Games: team (Tuesday), individual all-around (Aug. 1), vault, balance beam and floor exercise finals.
According to Andrade, there is no rivalry, but indeed lots of camaraderie and inspiration.
“I believe people fabricate this rivalry,” Andrade told a Brazilian news program. “Biles asked me if I’d still train after Paris. I told her I’m not sure. She said she was considering retiring, and I said, don’t do it; we NEED you. She’s a big inspiration. It’s amazing to see her competing in any meet.”
More similar than different
Despite their different nationalities, Biles and Andrade have much in common.
Both gymnasts arrived at the 2024 Olympic Games as superstars. Andrade is Brazil’s most marketed Olympic athlete, appearing in commercials, television shows and billboards.
She’s already the greatest Brazilian gymnast of all time and will build on her legacy at the Paris 2024 Games. At the Tokyo Games in 2021, she captured silver in the all-around and took home Gold in the vault — Brazil’s first individual gold in gymnastics.
Like Biles, Andrade has the potential to win the most medals of any person in the entire Brazilian delegation. She could return home with five medals.
Both gymnasts followed a path that their Black predecessors trailblazed. For Andrade, that was Daiane dos Santos. Santos became the first Brazilian gymnast to become a world champion, winning the floor exercise in 2003.
“I know how important it is for you to have someone to be a mirror, to be inspired by,” Andrade said. I have Daiane dos Santos like this for me. So today, playing that role, like she did for me, is very good. It is very important for children and adolescents, for adults. I really like to be that reference, and I always try to be the best I can so that people continue to mirror me.”
Biles, of course, followed in the footsteps of Dominique Dawes, who participated in three Olympic Games and won a gold medal as a member of 1996’s Magnificent Seven team.
From the periphery to Rio de Janeiro
Andrade hails from the outskirts of São Paulo, a suburban area that is significantly more impoverished than the city center. Her mother raised her and seven siblings on an income from cleaning other people’s houses. At 9, she left home to train in Rio de Janeiro with the Flamengo sports club. For at least two years, she performed her floor routine to the music of Baile de Favela as a homage to her humble origins.
She suffered ACL tears in her knees in 2015, 2017 and 2019. In 2020, she needed a last-minute competition to qualify for the Tokyo Games.
A chance to win?
Andrade’s best event is the vault, in which she is the reigning Olympic and World champion. Biles performs the most difficult vault in the world, and when she hits it, she is unstoppable. In the preliminary competition, Biles landed a double-piked Yurchenko summersault, the Biles II, scoring a 15.8.
But even Andrade’s coach knows the road to beating Biles is difficult. In a recent interview, Chico Porath admitted that the only way that Andrade would beat Biles in the vault competition was if Biles made a mistake.
Andrade, however, might debut a more difficult vault in the competition: the triple-twisting Yurchenko vault. If she lands this perfectly, and Biles makes a mistake, it could catapult Andrade to the gold in the vault.
But Andrade’s biggest goal isn’t even to win an individual medal. She wants Brazil’s gymnastics team to make it to the podium in the team finals. If this happens, it will be a first.
Kiratiana Freelon is an independent journalist based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her reporting focuses on social injustice, Afro-Brazilian communities and Brazil’s dynamic economic and political landscape. The Harvard and Cuny Graduate School of Journalism graduate has worked for the New York Times and her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Essence Magazine, New York Magazine, Condé Nast Traveler, and other publications. She will publish an Afro Rio Travel and Culture Guide in 2023.
