Meet the Gymnast Who Scares Simone Biles the Most

The gymnast that Simone Biles fears the most is a black woman from Brazil — Rebeca Andrade.

“Rebeca Andrade. She’s the one who scares me the most,” Biles said in her documentary,Simone Biles Rising.”

Andrade, 25 years old, took second place behind Biles in the all-around at the World Championships in 2023. But she beat Biles in the jump. In a podium moment between the two captured on camera, Biles appeared to take an imaginary crown off her head and crown Andrade. At those championships in Antwerp, Andrade won five medals: one gold, three silvers and a bronze. In Simone Biles’ absence in 2022. Andrade won the all-around at the World Gymnastics Championships.

The undefeated Biles credited Andrade with allowing her to achieve recent levels of competition.

Bile he said about Andrade“I really love competing with Rebecca. She motivates me.”

The two black women have developed a competitive and supportive relationship that has propelled them to recent athletic heights. That relationship will likely be on display five times during the Games: in the team competition (Tuesday), the individual all-around (Aug. 1), vault, balance beam and freestyle finals.

According to Andrade, there isn’t any rivalry between them, but loads of camaraderie and inspiration.

“I think people are making up this rivalry,” Andrade told a Brazilian news program. “Biles asked me if I would continue training after Paris. I told her I wasn’t sure. She said she was thinking about retiring, and I told her not to; we NEED you. She’s such an inspiration. It’s amazing that she competes in any kind of competition.”

More similar than different

Despite their different nationalities, Biles and Andrade have loads in common.

Both gymnasts arrived at the 2024 Olympics as superstars. Andrade is the most highly publicized Brazilian Olympian, appearing in commercials, TV shows and on billboards.

She is already the best Brazilian gymnast of all time and can proceed her legacy at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, she won silver in the all-around and brought home gold in the show jumping – Brazil’s first individual gold in gymnastics.

Like Biles, Andrade has the potential to win the most medals of anyone on the Brazilian team. She could go home with five medals.

Both gymnasts followed in the footsteps of their black predecessors, including Daiane dos Santos, in Andrade’s case. Santos became the first Brazilian gymnast to turn out to be a world champion when she won the free exercise in 2003.

“I know how important it is for you to have someone who is your mirror, who you can be inspired by,” Andrade said. “I have Daiane dos Santos for me. So today, playing this role, as she did for me, is very good. It’s very important for children and young people, for adults. I really like being that reference point and I always try to be the best I can so that people continue to reflect me.”

Biles, in fact, followed in the footsteps of Dominique Dawes, who competed in three Olympics and won a gold medal as a member of the 1996 Magnificent Seven team.

From the periphery to Rio de Janeiro

Andrade comes from the outskirts of São Paulo, a suburb that’s far more impoverished than the city center. Her mother raised her and 7 siblings on the income she earned from cleansing other people’s houses. At age 9, she left home to coach in Rio de Janeiro at the Flamengo sports club. For at the very least two years, she performed her dance routine to the music of Baile de Favela as a tribute to her humble beginnings.

In 2015, 2017 and 2019, she tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her knees. In 2020, she needed to compete at the last minute to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.

Chance of winning?

Andrade’s best event is the vault, where she is the reigning Olympic and world champion. Biles has the world’s most difficult vault, and when she does it, she is unstoppable. In the preliminary competition, Biles landed a Yurchenko flip with a double peak, Biles II, for a rating of 15.8.

But even Andrade’s coach knows the road to beating Biles is hard. In a recent interview, Chico Porath admitted that the only way Andrade will beat Biles in a vault competition is that if Biles makes a mistake.

Andrade, nonetheless, may make his competition debut with a tougher jump: Yurchenko’s triple twist jumpIf she does it perfectly and Biles makes a mistake, Andrade may very well be catapulted into the gold vault.

But Andrade’s biggest goal is not even to win a person medal. She wants the Brazilian gymnastics team to face on the podium in the team final. If that happens, it will be the first time.