Who is Rebeca Andrade? What to know about Brazilian gymnast going against Simone Biles

Since her stellar performance at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade has established herself as the second-best gymnast in the world — behind only Simone Biles .

Showcasing an inspiring story of resiliency after suffering three ACL tears throughout her senior career, Andrade is a two-time Olympic medalist and nine-time World Championship medalist who has reached — and maintained — her peak form since Tokyo. Hailing from São Paulo, Brazil, Andrade’s skills across all events exhibit gravity-defying excellence reminiscent only of Biles.

At Sunday’s qualifying competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics , Andrade proved she is once again the strongest threat to Biles’ hopes of a gold medal haul, qualifying in second place in the all-around, vault and floor exercise finals — behind only Biles in each event. Andrade also qualified in third place for the balance beam — behind Zhou Yaqin of China and Biles once again.

Rebeca Andrade vs. Simone Biles

Wherever there’s Biles, there’s Andrade.

Both gymnasts are known for their extraordinary versatility across all four events. However, like Biles, Andrade is strongest in the all-around, vault and floor exercise competitions.

During Sunday’s qualification round , Andrade finished second in the all-around with a score of 57.700. Although she scored over 1.8 points behind Biles, Andrade was the only gymnast to get even that close, finishing over 1.5 points ahead of Team USA’ s Suni Lee , who qualified in third.

The Brazilian has positioned herself as a solid second behind the American, consistently posting high scores when she competes. Andrade and Biles were the only gymnasts to qualify for four of the five women’s individual finals at the Paris Games.

In Biles’ absence following her withdrawal from several event finals due to the "twisties” during the Tokyo Olympics, Andrade stepped up to fill the substantial void left in the sport, picking up a silver medal in the all-around behind Suni Lee and winning gold in the vault final to become the first Brazilian to ever win an Olympic medal of any color in women’s gymnastics.

Andrade’s success continued during Biles’ hiatus after Tokyo. She won the all-around at the 2022 World Championships before finishing in second place to Biles during the 2023 World Championships following the American's return to the sport last year.

Andrade did, however, edge out Biles to win vault gold at the 2023 World Championships after Biles stumbled while completing the Biles II — the most difficult vault in women’s gymnastics.

Despite the competition, both athletes have been supportive of each other over the years , with Biles even pretending to move a crown from her head to Andrade's when she won the vault world championship.

Will Rebeca Andrade do a Yurchenko triple twist at the Olympics?

Andrade submitted the Yurchenko triple twist vault to be named after her in the code of points, the International Gymnastics Federation announced Thursday. Although videos circulating on social media show Andrade completing the vault in training, she will need to successfully execute it in competition for the skill to be named after her. If she succeeds, the vault would be the first skill named after Andrade.

The Yurchenko triple twist vault is a roundoff onto the springboard, followed by a back handspring onto the vaulting table and a backflip with three twists before landing. A woman has never completed the vault in competition.

Andrade did not attempt the Yurchenko triple twist during the women’s qualification competition Sunday. She could still elect to do it during the July 30 team final, the Aug. 1 all-around final or the Aug. 3 vault final.

Biles nailed her Biles II during women’s qualification to finish over sixth-tenths of a point ahead of Andrade in the vault standings. If Andrade stands a chance against Biles' unprecedented difficulty scores, she might have to pull out the Yurchenko triple twist to stay in contention for the vault gold.

If attempted, the Yurchenko triple twist vault, with a difficulty score of 6.0, would be the second-most difficult vault in women’s gymnastics, behind only the Biles II (a Yurchenko double pike) with a difficulty rating of 6.4 points.

Only one other female gymnast — North Korea's Hong Un-jong at the Rio 2016 Games — has attempted the triple Yurchenko in competition, but she was ultimately unsuccessful.

Rebeca Andrade age

Andrade, born May 8, 1999, is 25 years old.

Rebeca Andrade height

Andrade is 4-foot-9, according to NBCOlympics.com . But there are a lot of discrepancies between various outlets and rosters. She's listed anywhere from 4'9 to 5'1.

Who is on the Brazilian gymnastics team?

Andrade leads the Brazilian squad, joined by Jade Barbosa, 33, Lorrane Oliveira, 26, Flávia Saraiva, 24, and Júlia Soares, 18.

Brazil qualified for Tuesday’s team final in fourth place, behind Team USA who sits in a comfortable first place, but just a few tenths of a point behind Italy and China. Although Brazil has never won an Olympic medal in the women’s gymnastics team final, the team is expected to finish behind the Americans in second place as reigning team silver medalists at the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who is Rebeca Andrade? What to know about Brazilian gymnast going against Simone Biles