Brazilian Rebeca Andrade won a silver medal in the artistic gymnastics vault final at the 2024 Paris Olympics at the Bercy Arena. The gold went to American Simone Biles. Both gymnasts managed to land both vaults, achieving the highest average scores in the sport. Biles scored 15,300 points, and Rebeca scored 14,966.
In this event, each competitor has to do two jumps from different groups. The one with the highest average score wins. The Brazilian’s first jump was the Cheng, which consists of a cartwheel entry, followed by a half turn and a pirouette in the air. Rebeca nailed the jump, receiving 15,100 points.
The Brazilian’s second jump was the Amanar, also known as the Yurchenko with a double and a half pirouette. Once again well executed, it resulted in a good score for Rebeca: 14.833. With this, the Brazilian obtained an average score of 14.966 points, which earned her the silver – her fifth Olympic medal. Rebeca is the greatest Brazilian Olympic medalist.
Simone Biles
The gold went to the woman who is considered the greatest gymnast of all time: Simone Biles. The American showed what she was capable of in her first performance, when she performed a vault that bears her name, the Biles II, which has only been performed by her among women and by very few male gymnasts.
The back flip followed by a double somersault is considered the most difficult element in women’s gymnastics, and consists of a back flip followed by a double somersault. The vault resulted in the best result of all the performances: 15.700 points.
On her second vault, Biles nailed it again, executing the Cheng move, with a rolling entry followed by a half turn and a half pirouette. It earned the gymnast 14,900 points. With that, the American had an average of 15,300 points.
Rebeca and Biles will also face each other in the beam and floor finals on Monday (5).
The bronze medal went to another athlete from the United States: Jade Careu, who obtained an average of 14,466 points in the end, after scoring 14,733 on the first jump – also a Cheng – and 14,200 on the second jump, a Flick, which consists of a complete rotation of the body around a horizontal axis.
Rivalry and admiration
Rebeca and Biles share a rivalry and admiration for each other, with public praise expressed both on social media and during interviews. Biles has said that she sees Rebeca as her “greatest competitor” and has repeatedly said that having her as an opponent is something that motivates her.
They have faced off on three recent occasions. In the qualifying round on July 28, Rebeca’s average score was 14.683 points, while Biles’s was 15.300. In the team final, Rebeca scored 15.100, while Biles scored 14.900 points. In the individual all-around final, Rebeca scored 15.100 again, while Biles scored 15.766 points.
The fact that she made the jump after her American opponent represented an advantage for the Brazilian in today’s competition, since she would decide which jump she would do already knowing the score needed to win the gold medal.
Rebeca Andrade has a long history of success in gymnastics. In addition to winning the Olympic gold medal in vault at the 2020 Games, she was twice an Olympic runner-up in the individual all-around (in 2020 and 2024), an Olympic bronze medalist in the team event at the current Olympic Games, a two-time world champion in vault (in 2021 and 2023), and the 2022 individual all-around world champion.
Her achievements during the 2024 Olympic Games – bronze in the team event and silver in the all-around event, in addition to the silver she won today – made Rebeca the Brazilian athlete with the most Olympic medals. She also won gold on the vault and silver on the bars during the 2021 world championships in Kitakyushu, Japan.
