In downtown Florianopolis, a crowd of people walk back to work after their lunch hour. But some are distracted with thoughts of Paris later this week.
“Yeah, we can’t wait,” said Leticia Feller. She’s a former Muay Thai boxer with short hair and contagious enthusiasm.
“I’m really rooting for the volleyball girls; Rayssa Leal in skateboarding, and Rebeca Andrade is the favorite in gymnastics. She’s shown the best of what a Brazilian can do,” said Feller with a laugh. “… and she’s making Simone Biles scared. She’s making her scared.”
Here’s why:
In the world gymnastics championships last year in Antwerp, Belgium, 25-year-old Rebeca Andrade, who is 4-foot-9 inches, beat Simone Biles in the vault. Andrade took silver in the all-around, placing just after Biles.
“Rebeca is like a ballerina, mixing strength and smoothness. The explosive power of an eagle with the elegance of a swan,” said Juliana Pizani, the head of the Department of Physical Education at the Federal University of Santa Catarina. “While Simone Biles is thunder and storm. A force of nature. Defying the laws of gravity.”
Pizani says she is “crazy” for this matchup of two incredible gymnasts with very different styles.
Rebeca Andrade has come a long way.
She and her seven siblings were raised by their single mother in a poor neighborhood in São Paulo. She began training at the age of four. That, 2003, was the year Brazilian gymnast Daiane dos Santos took gold at the World Artistic Gymnastic Championships in Anaheim.
Dos Santos’s win was the first time a Brazilian or South American had won an event at the world championship. It was a turning point for Brazilian gymnastics.
“I always told my students that Daiane flew. I told them that she had springs in her feet,” said Mitzy Morales, a longtime gymnastics coach from Daiane dos Santos’s home state of Rio Grande do Sul. “After Daiane, there was an explosion of so many kids wanting to do gymnastics. She helped to really propel the sport. She was a springboard for the sport.”
Daiane dos Santos was an inspiration for Rebeca Andrade, too.
There’s this incredible news report from 2009 when dos Santos and another gymnast from the Olympic team went to train with young girls in São Paulo. Among them was 10-year-old Rebeca Andrade, in a pink gymnast’s outfit.
“I was trying to do some things, and they taught me,” she told the camera.
Rebeca Andrade would go on to win gold medals at international championships and gold and silver medals at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
“I really wanted to be an Olympic champion. I really wanted to have a medal, but I got so much more than this,” she said in an interview a few years ago. “I got so much love from the people. I received kindness and more faith. And I hope I gave more faith to others that they, too, can achieve their dreams.”
Professor Juliana Pizani said Andrade is vital for the success of Brazil’s Olympic women’s team.
“She does really well under pressure,” said Pizani. “So, she lifts the morale on the team and serves as a model of dedication and discipline for the younger athletes.”
She is an inspiration across Brazil.
A group of young girls are training at a Gym-X gym in a working-class neighborhood of Florianopolis. They’re beginners, but their coach, Ariele Gomes Magalhães, says they all have someone to look up to.
“They constantly say, ‘Rebeca Andrade can do that jump,’” she said. “They are constantly talking about her and others on the Brazilian team.”
Andrade has faced adversity. She’s bounced back from numerous surgeries on her foot and knees. She has terrible eyesight. And she’s Black in a sport that white athletes traditionally dominate.
That’s another similarity between Andrade, Simone Biles and Daiane dos Santos. They are all incredible Black athletes who have battled prejudice to get where they are.
Daiane dos Santos has spoken out about the racial discrimination she faced, particularly early in her career.
Juliana Pizani says racism is a reality in gymnastics, like other sports, but the increasing visibility of important Black athletes is helping to challenge the stereotypes and inspire new generations of gymnasts.
They are more than challenging the stereotypes. They are breaking them.
Most of the women on Brazil’s gymnastics team heading to Paris this year are Black. And with Rebeca Andrade in the lead, they’re reaching for the gold.