It’s a case of silver déjà vu for Rebeca Andrade.
The 25-year-old Brazilian artistic gymnast, the most decorated Brazilian and Latin American gymnast of all time, has claimed the silver medal in the women’s gymnastics individual all-around competition at the 2024 Paris Games.
Andrade had previously won the silver medal in the same category at the 2020 Tokyo Games, becoming the first Brazilian female gymnast to medal at an Olympic Games.
Andrade, who led the Brazilian team to its first team Olympic medal ever at earlier in the week, finished the competition with a 57.932 after the four rotations, 1.199 points behind Team USA’s Simone Biles. Suni Lee claimed the bronze with a 56.465.
Andrade surged past Biles midway through the all-around finals at raucous Bercy Arena and had the opportunity to produce the biggest upset of the Games so far after Biles botched a transition on uneven bars.
But Biles fought back. She turned in a great beam routine and was amazing on the floor exercise to turn things around as she claimed a second gold in the competition, eight years after her triumph in Rio de Janeiro.
“Simone is the best, and she brings out the best of me,” Andrade said.
In the end, Andrade scored a 15.100 on the vault, a 14.666 on the uneven bars, a 14.133 on the balance beam and a 14.033 in the floor exercise.
Despite the silver finish, Andrade was all smiles.
“I’ve worked so hard to achieve this,” Andrade said. “It’s just unbelievable. I had so much fun, every single moment has been sensational.”