Despite having had three ACL surgeries, Rebeca Andrade is unstoppable --- and she came in with a silver medal win behind Simone Biles in the women's gymnastics all-around on Thursday with a commanding performance.
Andrade of Brazil may be Biles' toughest competition yet. The 25-year-old came into the spotlight at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics where she won gold in the vault. She also placed second in the women's artistic gymnastics individual all-around, behind Team USA's Suni Lee, becoming the first South American woman to do so.
She's among the rare gymnastics jack-of-all-trades because she has medaled in every event (vault, floor, uneven bars, and beam), either at Worlds or at the Olympics.
Since Tokyo, Andrade has only gotten more impressive. She won the World Championships all-around title and vault title in 2022, and the vault title again in 2023.
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Andrade has collected an impressive total of nine medals at the Worlds. Although it pales when compared to Biles' 30 Worlds titles, and the two are competing against one another in Paris, they both have mutual admiration for the other's talent.
At the 2023 World Championships in Antwerp, Biles was seen on camera appearing to take an imaginary crown off her head and placing it on Andrade.
"I actually love competing with Rebeca. She does push me. She makes me want to stick all my landings and all of the things," Biles told an interviewer. "She's a phenomenal gymnast and I hope she keeps going and going and hopefully we see more of her on the podium."
In the end, it was Biles who won the women's gymnastics individual all-around gold in Paris with a total score of 59.131. Andrade came slightly behind at 57.932 for silver and Lee took home the bronze.
