Brazilian artistic gymnast Rebeca Andrade has just secured the second Olympic gold medal of her career, pipping American legend Simone Biles to first place in the individual floor exercise final at the Bercy Arena in Paris.
The 25-year-old Andrade managed a score of 14.166 with her routine, edging out Biles’s score of 14.133. The gold medal goes along with the two silvers she won in the all-around individual and vault finals, and the bronze medal in the team event.
Andrade’s Monday morning victory is Brazil’s 11th medal in this Games so far, and the second gold medal after Beatriz Souza won the gold medal in the women’s +78kg judo competition. It is also Andrade’s second Olympic gold, having won the vault competition in the Tokyo Games.
Crucially, however, Andrade’s vault win in Tokyo occurred without Simone Biles competing against her — today’s floor exercise triumph in Paris was won in direct competition with Biles. Before today, Rebeca Andrade had never stood on the Olympic podium above the 27-year-old American, widely considered the greatest gymnast of all time.
Indeed, Andrade has now become the first gymnast ever to beat Biles in a floor exercise final at a major international tournament.
On an official visit to Chile, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva congratulated Andrade in a social media post, noting that the gymnast is now the most decorated Olympian in Brazilian history.
Andrade and Biles had gone head to head earlier today in the balance beam final, though both stars slipped up in their routines and failed to get a place on the podium, with the gold going to Italy’s Alice D’Amato instead.
Women’s artistic gymnastics has cemented its place among the most popular Olympic sports in Brazil — and one of its biggest sources of medals. In all, the Brazilian team grabbed four medals in the sport’s six available events.
The sport’s success also has important social connotations, as Brazil’s racial equality minister, Anielle Franco, pointed out in a social media post congratulating Andrade on her victory. While the sport was traditionally an elitist pastime around the world and in Brazil — introduced to the country by German immigrants in the 1800s — Brazilian gymnastics is now spearheaded by young black women.
“Once again, it’s a black woman bringing home the gold for Brazil,” Ms. Franco wrote. Indeed, the image of Rebeca Andrade, Simone Biles, and the U.S.’s Jordan Chiles on the floor exercise podium — all three of them black women — held an important symbolism.
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