"Rebeca Andrade is giving me a run for my money "- Simone Biles opens up about going head to head against the Brazilian Gymnast at the Paris Olympics

By Agnijeeta Majumder

Modified Nov 20, 2024 03:27 GMT

Simone Biles talked about her Brazilian counterpart Rebeca Andrade and how the latter made winning difficult for her at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Biles amassed three golds and a silver in her third Olympic appearance.

The 27-year-old has often faced some stiff competition from Rebeca Andrade at major events. At the 2023 World Championships, Biles faced a setback in the Yurchenko Double Pike and finished 0.201 points behind Andrade. In the floor exercise, she ended just 0.133 ahead of the Brazilian after facing a one-tenth penalty for a step out of bounds. Biles finished with 58.399 to win the all-around gold in Paris, while Rebeca Andrade was just 1.633 behind in silver.

Though the 27-year-old continued her excellence at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Andrade always kept her on her toes with neck-to-neck finishes. In the all-around final, Biles finished behind Andrade in the uneven bars, having faced an uncharacteristic fall. However, she persevered to win the title but failed to clinch the top spot in the floor exercise. The American's floor exercise silver marked the first time she missed the gold on the apparatus in her senior international career.

Following the Paris Olympics, Biles' eponymous Netflix docuseries, Simone Biles Rising, was released on October 25, 2024. In the fourth episode, she talked about Andrade's vault skills, which prompted her to opt for the harder routine to score better.

"There's a little part of me where I'm like 'Oof!' Andrade's giving me a run for my money. It's stressing me out. And so I really think it'll come down to, like, 'Which vault are we gonna do?' because this one sets the tone of how close or how far I'm gonna be from Andrade." [Ep. 4, 23:20]

Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles (who recently forfeited her Olympic floor bronze) bowed to Rebeca Andrade on the floor podium, a gesture standing as a testament to healthy sportsmanship.

Simone Biles felt stressful to compete against Rebeca Andrade at the Paris Olympics

Simone Biles and Rebeca Andrade on the podium at the 2023 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships; (Source: Getty)

After her all-around performance at the Paris Games, Simone Biles admitted to bringing her 'big guns out' to defeat her Brazilian rival. She said:

"I'm excited and proud to compete with [Andrade], but I don't like it no more. I mean, I'm getting uncomfortable, guys. I don’t like that feeling. I was stressing," the three-time Olympian noted with laughs.

She continued:

"I don't want to compete with Rebeca no more. I'm tired. She's way too close. I've never had an athlete that close, so it definitely put me on my toes and it brought up the best athlete in myself," Biles said smiling.

After posting the highest scores in the vault in Paris, Biles announced that she would not perform her eponymous skill, the Yurchenko Double Pike anymore.