WATCH: Simone Biles breathes sigh of relief after seeing Brazilian rival Rebeca Andrade falling short of her score in vault final at Paris Olympics

By Riddhi Acharya

Modified Aug 03, 2024 16:19 GMT

Simone Biles has made her way to yet another gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, this time in the vault finals. While the American typically tends to dominate this apparatus, she was caught breathing a sigh of relief on Saturday after seeing Brazilian rival Rebeca Andrade's score go up.

Biles came to this final on a winning streak that started with the team event. On Tuesday, July 30, alongside teammates Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera, the American claimed the team gold, reclaiming what they lost in Tokyo. Up next, The 27-year-old stormed to the top of the podium in the all-around, marking her second Olympic title in the event.

In both of these competitions, Rebeca Andrade was right behind Biles. In the team finals the Brazilian took bronze, while the all-around saw her claim silver just 1.119 points behind the American.

Coming into this vault finals, anticipations ran high, with the apparatus being the speciality of both Simone Biles as well as Rebeca Andrade, with the latter being the only one who could challenge the newly crowned all-around champion.

As the competition began, Biles was up first, scoring a 15.700 for her first vault, and a 14.900 on her second, averaging a 15.300. Post this, it was Andrade's turn, who posted a 15.100 and 14.833, and the American breathed a sigh of relief as her closest competitor's scores went up.

Here is a video of Biles reaction to Andrade's numbers:

Simone Biles discusses being pushed by Rebeca Andrade

Before Simone Biles was sighing in relief at beating Rebeca Andrade in the vault, she admitted that she tends to go on alert when competing against the Brazilian.

After the all-around finals at the Paris Olympics, the American joked that she didn't want to compete against Andrade anymore, saying that she's never had an athlete be so close to her on the scoreboard.

“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 brought out the best athlete in myself.”

Biles’ teammate, Suni Lee, who claimed bronze in the all-around, revealed that she'd never seen the gymnast as stressed out as she was when competing against Andrade.

Simone Biles also revealed that she had originally planned to do a safer vault in the all-around finals, but ‘decided to bring out the big guns,' given whom she was competing against.