Rebeca Andrade


Rebeca Andrade de Rodrigues is an artistic gymnast who represented Brazil at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Junior career

2012

Andrade made her international debut at the South American Youth Championship in 2012, where she placed first with the Brazilian team; first in the individual all-around, vault, and uneven bars; and second on balance beam and floor exercise. A few months later, she competed at the Brazil Trophy, where she edged out past Olympians and more experienced gymnasts to claim the all-around title.

2013

Andrade started her 2013 season by competing at the Comaneci Invitational in Oklahoma City. She won the all-around and was ranked 7th with the Brazilian team. At the Brazil Trophy, she successfully defended her all-around title. In November, she was selected to compete at the Mexico Open in Acapulco, but she was later switched to compete at the Gymnasiade, held in her home country. In the vault final, she performed one of the most difficult vaults in women's gymnastics, an Amanar. She won the gold medal, as well as a silver with the team, a bronze in the all-around, and a sixth-place finish on floor.

2014

In February Andrade began the season by competing at the WOGA Classic in Plano, Texas, and winning the all-around, vault, uneven bars and silver with the team, beam and floor. She later competed at the Junior Pan American Championships where she helped Brazil win the silver medal behind Canada. Individually she won silver in the all-around and on floor exercise behind Flávia Saraiva, and won gold on vault, uneven bars, and balance beam. She was scheduled to represent Brazil at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China, but withdrew due to injury. She was replaced by teammate Flávia Saraiva, who ended up winning three medals. Besides the YOG, she also missed the Brazilian National Championships.

Senior career

2015

Andrade made her senior debut at the 2015 Ghent Friendly, taking silver behind Saraiva after falling off beam. Despite being considered one of the strongest candidates for the 2015 World Gymnastics Championships to represent the Brazilian team, her plans were cut short after tearing her ACL while performing a half on, full off vault in training. The team placed 9th, failing to qualify directly to the 2016 Summer Olympics, but earning a berth to the Olympic Test Event.

2016

Andrade's first meet back from her ACL tear was the Jesolo Trophy, where she performed watered-down routines but qualified to the uneven bars final. She failed to medal after falling in the event finals. Afterward, she competed at the Doha World Cup and won silver on the uneven bars. Her performances were considered good enough to be named to the Olympic Test Event team.
At the Test Event, she competed on vault and uneven bars only. She performed a double-twisting Yurchenko vault and a clean uneven bars routine to help the Brazilian team win gold in the team event and, therefore, qualify a full team to the 2016 Summer Olympics. Individually, she qualified for the uneven bars final, where she won bronze behind Germans Elisabeth Seitz and Sophie Scheder.
Andrade then competed at the 2016 São Paulo World Cup, where she qualified to the uneven bars and balance beam finals. In the bars final, she tied German Kim Bui for the silver. The next day on balance beam, she finished third after falling off the apparatus. Her compatriot Daniele Hypólito won. Andrade continued her success on the World Cup circuit by winning two silvers at the Anadia World Cup on beam and floor exercise, both behind Saraiva. Afterward, she was named to the 2016 Olympic team alongside Test Event teammates Hypólito, Saraiva, Jade Barbosa, and Lorrane Oliveira.
Her last competition in preparation for the Olympics was a friendly meet in the Netherlands on July 10. At the friendly meet, she tied Dutch gymnast Eythora Thorsdottir for gold in the all-around and showed an upgraded uneven bars routine.
At the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Andrade performed well in qualifications, helping Brazil qualify to the team finals in 5th place and qualifying individually to the all-around final in 3rd place after American Gabby Douglas was excluded due to the two-per-country rule. During the team finals, Andrade fell on floor, and Brazil finished 8th. In the individual all around, she was expected to contend for a medal. However, underperformances caused her to place 11th.

2017

2017 began successfully for Andrade, winning gold on vault at the World Cup in Koper, Slovenia and then winning both the vault uneven Bars in Varna, Bulgaria. She displayed the Amanar and Lopez on vault in order to win vault medals again— at the Rio Olympics she competed only the Amanar— and upgraded her uneven Bars routine. She was named to the 2017 World Championships team along with first year senior Thais Fidelis. She originally was supposed to compete in the all-around; however she felt knee pain following training and examinations found that her knee was injured as had to get surgery, not allowing her to compete at the championships.

2018

She was not able to compete in 2018 until September at the 2018 Pan American Championships. She only competed two events, vault and uneven bars, and downgraded on both, performing only a full twisting yurchenko and a double tuck dismount off uneven Bars. However, she restored some of her difficulty ahead of the world championships, performing a double twisting yurchenko and full twisting double tuck dismount in Bars. At the world championships, she managed to compete at worlds for the first time. In qualifications he was the 2nd reserve for the Bars final and helped qualify Brazil to the team final in 5th. In team finals she performed on vault, bars and beam. She did a solid vault and beam routine. Going into the final event, Bars, Brazil was in 3rd place and in position for a medal. However Olympic teammates Jade Barbosa and Flavia Saraiva made major mistakes, with Barbosa falling out of several handstands and missing connections and Saraiva hitting her legs on the bar on a piked tkachev. Andrade performed the final routine, falling off after her Pak salto. These mistakes knocked Brazil out of medal contention, finishing 7th.
In mid-November Andrade competed at the Cottbus World Cup where she won gold on vault and balance beam and silver on uneven bars, behind Nina Derwael of Belgium.

2019

In March Andrade competed at the 2019 EnBW DTB-Pokal Team Challenge where she helped the Brazilian team win team gold and individually won all-around gold ahead of Angelina Melnikova of Russia. At the Brazilian National Championships in June Andrade suffered an ACL injury for the third time in her career, ending her 2019 season and ensuring she will miss the 2019 World Championships and be unable to help Brazil qualify a team to the 2020 Olympic Games.

2020

Andrade made her comeback at the Baku World Cup where she finished third on uneven bars behind Fan Yilin and Anastasia Ilyankova and second on balance beam behind Urara Ashikawa during qualifications and therefore qualified to the event finals. However event finals were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Azerbaijan. In July Andrade and numerous other Brazilian Olympic hopefuls traveled to Portugal as they were unable to resume training due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil remaining unstable and gyms remaining closed.

Competitive History

Junior

YearEventTeamAAVTUBBBFX
2012South American Championships
2012Brazil Trophy
2013Comaneci Invitational7
2013Brazil Trophy
2013Brasilia Gymnasiade6
2014WOGA Classic
2014Pan American Championships
2014National Championships

Senior

YearEventTeamAAVTUBBBFX
2015Ljubljana World Cup
2015São Paulo World Cup7
2015Flanders Team Challenge
2016City of Jesolo Trophy8
2016Doha World Challenge Cup
2016Olympic Test Event
2016São Paulo World Challenge Cup
2016Anadia World Challenge Cup
2016Dutch Olympic Qualifier64
2016Olympic Games811
2016National Championships
2017City of Jesolo Trophy564
2017Koper World Challenge Cup
2017National Championships
2017Varna World Challenge Cup
2018Pan American Championships5
2018World Championships7
2018Cottbus World Cup
2019EnBW DTB-Pokal Team Challenge
2020Baku World Cup