The women’s artistic gymnastics world has a new star. After winning two medals, one gold and the other silver, at the Olympics, Rebeca Andrade was on the podium twice more this Saturday (23) at the World Championship, again in Japan, in Kitakyushu. After winning the jump, repeating the Tokyo result, she returned to the platform about two hours and fifteen minutes later to cash in the silver on the uneven bars.
The gymnast from Guarulhos (SP), who lost three World Championships due to injuries and had only participated in the competition once, returning from surgery, shows that she can compete with Simone Biles or, in the absence of the American, be the great protagonist of the sport. She’s still on the crossbar final at the Worlds, tomorrow, and it’s a consensus that the Brazilian only didn’t make the podium on the ground and in the general individual because she was spared and didn’t compete.
Thinking about Brazil, the two results are historic due to a series of factors. Never had the same athlete won two medals in the same Worlds, naturally not on the same day either. The country only had one medal in the vault, with Jade Barbosa in 2010, but bronze, with Rebeca’s gold being the first. As for the asymmetrical bars, which for a long time has been the worst device in Brazilian gymnastics, the country had never been on the podium.
More was expected from Rebeca in the asymmetrical final, but the Brazilian went to the final with the best score, shot, but couldn’t make one of the calls for her presentation in the final. He lost 0.4 of a starting note and received 14,633, almost half a point worse than he had done in the qualifiers: 15,100. At that time, it was already in second place, because the Chinese Xiaoyuan Wei opened with 14,733.
After performing, the Brazilian had to stay in the crowd while her rivals competed. The other Chinese in the final, Rui Luo, also took 14,633, but was behind, because Rebeca had a better execution grade, a tiebreaker — the final grade is the sum of the starting grade and the execution grade. The concern became the Russian Angelina Melnikova, champion of the general individual, but the European received 14,533 and was also behind the Brazilian, in fourth.
Earlier, Rebeca had confirmed her favoritism in the jump. In two perfect performances, he scored 15,133 and 14,800. As she was the second to perform, she had to wait for the others to celebrate the gold, which ended up coming with a huge margin. While the Brazilian had an average of 14.966, the second placed, the Italian Asia D’Amato, got 14.083. The bronze went to Russian Angelina Melnikova, with 13,966.
Until today, only Daiane dos Santos, among the women gymnasts in Brazil, had been world champion, in the soil, in 2003. Overall, the only one with two achievements is Diego Hypolito, champion in the soil in 2005 and 2007. The other world champion from Brazilian gymnastics is Arthur Nory, champion of the fixed bar in 2019, who didn’t even make it to the final in Kitakyushu, where he tried to defend the title. Arthur Zanetti won gold in rings in 2013 at the Antwerp World Cup.
Since 1996, a World Cup has not been played in an Olympic year, which turned out to be necessary due to the postponement of the Olympics and the insistence of the International Gymnastics Federation (IRF) in organizing the World Cup in Japan amid the campaign of the Japanese Morinari Watanabe for re-election as president . Due to the proximity of dates with the Olympics, the competition is empty of the main names in the sport, with few exceptions, notably Melnikova, Rebeca and the Japanese Hashimoto, general individual champion at the Olympics.
The Brazilian confederation, however, chose not to test and only take the three gymnasts it considered had a chance of medals: Rebeca, Nory and Caio Souza. But, in Japan, the technical committee opted to spare Rebeca from the solo event, in which she would be favorite for the podium and candidate for gold. The 22-year-old Brazilian has three knee surgeries and had only participated in one World Cup in her career, and is returning from an injury. As she had been reporting pain, the commission preferred not to take any chances.
For not competing on the ground, she did not compete in the all-around event, which sums up the result of the four apparatuses, and in which she was silver in Tokyo. At the Worlds, she would need a relatively simple solo series by her standards to win gold in the individual, which went to Melnikova, the first non-US all-around champion since 2010.
Tomorrow Rebeca competes in the end of the crossbar, without favoritism, even if she has a podium chance. Also tomorrow, Caio Souza is an underdog in the decision of the parallel bars. The gymnast from Volta Redonda (RJ) was 13th in the all-around final.
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