Andrade grew up poor in Brazil and only got into gymnastics because of her aunt, a cook at a gym that hosted a program intended to lift girls out of poverty via the sport. At age 16, Andrade tore her ACL, a devastating injury for any athlete. Then she tore the same ligament again two years later and suffered another ACL tear in 2019.
Still, she has thrived in the sport, as much as anyone not named Simone Biles can. She now has four Olympic medals, one a gold in the vault three years ago in Tokyo, a silver there in the all-around and a bronze this year as part of the Brazilian team’s performance to go with her silver in the all-around. Andrade also has three gold medals at the world championships, one in the 2022 all-around and another two for vault performances in 2021 and 2023, and a silver for her second-place all-around finish behind Biles in 2023.
As documented in this Post story, Andrade and Biles have encouraged each other despite often being so closely matched in competition, and at last year’s world championships, Biles took an imaginary crown off her own head and placed it on Andrade’s after the Brazilian outpointed her to win gold on the vault.
“I know that she wants to win, but she will continue rooting for me,” she said. “And she knows that I want to win, but I’ll keep rooting for her.”
