It’s official: Simone Biles isn’t the only comeback story at the Paris Olympics. Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, the 25-year-old gymnast who pushed past three ACL tears to win her country’s first women’s-gymnastics Olympic medals in 2021, finally managed to edge out Biles on the floor event, taking home gold Monday morning.
After flying through the team and individual all-around finals, Biles won her third gold medal of this year’s games at Saturday’s vault final with Andrade just behind her in silver. But Biles faltered slightly in the beam and uneven bar events. She and teammate Sunisa Lee both fell off the balance beam during their routines, ceding the gold to Italy’s Alice D’Amato. On Monday, during the last gymnastics event of the Olympics, Biles went out of bounds a few times on her typically pitch-perfect floor routine, earning her point deductions. Her final score of 14.133 put her second to Andrade’s 14.166. Biles’s teammate Jordan Chiles ended up winning bronze, and the two Americans flanked a teary-eyed but grinning Andrade on the podium, bowing down to her while Andrade held her hands up victoriously.
This sequence by Rebeca Andrade! Art! ???????? pic.twitter.com/HFlJJWHYgF
— Rafa Sales Ross (@rafiews) August 5, 2024
QUE FOTÃO
— njdeprê - marlon (@njdmarlon) August 5, 2024
REBECA ANDRADE E NADA MAIS pic.twitter.com/c8gleVApSI
Biles and Andrade have been neck and neck for a lot of the competition in Paris, and this was the Brazilian gymnast’s last chance to edge out the GOAT. The two women have heaped praise on each other in interviews and exchanged friendly hugs and smiles as they pass each other between routines. Ahead of the weekend’s events, Biles seemed to sense Andrade gaining on her, telling NBC with a laugh, “I don’t want to compete with Rebeca no more. She’s way too close. I’m going to hand it to her now — she can have the rest.”
What a special moment, three Black girls sweep the medals for the Floor Exercise, and all performed to Beyoncé songs. Congrats Rebeca Andrade, Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles. ???????????????????????? #BlackGirlMagic pic.twitter.com/AUy1qwUU50
— ???? Madam Auntie VP Kamala Harris for PRESIDENT! (@flywithkamala) August 5, 2024
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