ANTWERP, Belgium (AP) — Shilese Jones’ uneven bars routine was stunning, but it might not have been enough for a medal.
American Leanne Wong scored higher than Joscelyn Roberson in qualifying, but there’s a two-per-country rule and Hungary’s Maria Csenge Bacskay was announced as her replacement. It made little sense.
Background
Despite torn anterior cruciate ligaments (ACL) twice, Rebeca Andrade has continued to make steady progress and rise through the ranks. Andrade, 22, is now an Olympic silver medalist and a world champion. She is a brilliant on vault, steady on bars and dynamic on floor exercise. Her latest feat is even more impressive given what she has endured in the past.
Rebeca Andrade was born in Brazil to a Brazilian father and an Italian mother. She started gymnastics in her hometown of Sao Paulo at age 7. Her first big breakthrough was when she won the all-around title at the 2015 Ghent Friendly competition. She was one of the strongest candidates to represent the Brazilian team at the 2015 World Gymnastics Championships in a few months. However, Andrade’s plans were ruined when she tore her ACL while performing a half on, full off vault in training.
The injury kept Andrade out of action for nearly a year. She finally returned to competition at the City of Jesolo Trophy where she helped her team win a silver medal. She also competed on vault, uneven bars and balance beam where she finished fifth. At the Koper World Cup, she won gold on vault. At the Brazilian National Championships, she won all-around and vault and placed fourth on both uneven bars and floor exercise.
In 2022, Andrade had a successful season despite having to deal with two different injuries. She won three World Cup medals on vault, uneven bars and balance beam. She was a strong contender to qualify for the Olympic Games. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced her to miss two major competitions.
In her return at the City of Jesolo Trophy, Andrade only competed on vault, uneven bars and balance. She was able to qualify for the uneven bars event final and helped her team finish in second place. She was able to restore some difficulty on both vault and uneven bars at the Brazilian National Championships in August, where she won vault and earned an additional bronze with her team on the bars.
Qualifications
Rebeca Andrade is the new queen of women’s gymnastics. The 2023 world champion on vault and 2022 Olympic all-around silver medalist has a sky-high vault, rock solid beam set and powerful tumbling passes on floor. She also threw an amazing dismount on uneven bars, staking her claim as one of the top competitors to challenge Simone Biles for the title of best female gymnast in the world.
Andrade qualified for the final in all four events. Biles, who had the second-best all-around score in qualifying, was expected to go up against Andrade in the vault final. But she stumbled on her Yurchenko double pike and lost her footing, and was awarded a score of 14.3.
This wasn’t Biles’s greatest moment at the event, but it’s not as if she’s been performing anywhere near her peak. She got so much power on her second vault, the Cheng, that she overrotated and landed on her heels and fell backward. She was given a 0.5 deduction for that, plus a 0.1 for shuffling her feet on the landing.
Leanne Wong had the 10th-best vault score in qualifying, which ordinarily would have made her a reserve for the final. But Joscelyn Roberson withdrew from the vault final after a leg injury suffered in warm-ups for the team final Wednesday night, and Wong was listed as her replacement because there is a two-gymnast limit on each individual apparatus final.
Britain’s Jessica Gadirova was supposed to be the second reserve for the vault final, but a misunderstanding between the FIG and its scoring-software partner, Swiss Timing, resulted in Hungary’s Maria Csenge Bacskay being announced as the backup. Gadirova was ill and didn’t compete Saturday, so Wong was eligible to make the final.
No other American women made the vault final, but Biles and Jones both will be in the balance beam and floor exercise finals Sunday along with fellow Americans Carey and Chiles on the vault and Skye Blakely on high bar. The final day of competition features the men’s pommel horse, still rings and parallel bars finals and the balance beam and floor exercise finals for both men and women. All of the event finals are streamed on Peacock and will be broadcast on CNBC at noon ET.
Finals
BUDAPEST — Simone Biles and Rebeca Andrade both landed their final vaults in the women’s vault competition Saturday night, but it was Andrade who emerged with a much-deserved world title. The four-time Olympic champion won gold, and she is now a record six-time world vault champion in her career.
Biles, who is also a three-time world all-around champion, made her return to international competition after the coronavirus pandemic with another remarkable display in the finals. She became the first woman to complete the Yurchenko double pike vault in an official international competition, mesmerizing onlookers with the skill that consists of a roundoff onto the springboard, a back handspring onto the vaulting table and then a piked double backflip into the air before landing. The crowd erupted in applause as she walked off the mat and into the mixed zone.
The American gymnasts in the final weren’t far behind Biles, with Leanne Wong and Kristina Bachynkova finishing in sixth and seventh, respectively. Biles surpassed Belarusian Vitaly Scherbo’s overall medal record with a combined total of 35 Olympic and world championships medals.
In the men’s pole vault, Olympic and two-time world champion Mondo Duplantis won his second world title with a vault of 6.10m. His clean performance included three attempts on the final height, equalling his own Asian record. The victory made him only the third man after Sergey Bubka and Sam Kendricks to successfully defend a world title. Two-time Olympic bronze medallist Kurtis Marschall upgraded his Oregon bronze to silver, and American Joscelyn Roberson withdrew from the final with an injury she sustained in warmups for the team final Wednesday.
The Americans added to their medal totals later in the evening with medals on pommel horse (Khoi Young, silver) and uneven bars (Shilese Jones, bronze in a tiebreaker over China’s Huang Zhuoufan). Arkansas alum Tina Sutej also qualified for the final on the pommel horse, but she withdrew on the first attempt at the highest height of 15.3 (3.60). The other American, Sandi Morris, advanced to the final by clearing 4.65) in qualifying, but she had to retire after a fall on her third and final attempt at 4.6.
Analysis
Five years ago, Andrade came to the World Championships as one of the top contenders for all-around gold. But her second (out of three) ACL injury ruled her out of the competition, and the U.S. team took home the title, led by Simone Biles and Kelley Lee.
Andrade’s injury was just the latest challenge in a career that has been plagued with injuries and personal setbacks. Her triumph in Liverpool, which marked the first time a Brazilian woman won the all-around title, is a testament to her resilience and her ability to rise above adversity.
At just 19, Andrade has already earned four major medals and is on track to add more this summer. The native of Guarulhos, who grew up cleaning houses and walking to gymnastics training, has a unique perspective on the sport of gymnastics. Her innate talent and natural charisma has captured the hearts of fans around the world, proving that anyone can accomplish their dreams with hard work and dedication.
The young star has come a long way since her junior career, when she competed for the first time at the Nadia Comaneci Invitational in Oklahoma City and won the vault title. She continued to impress throughout her junior year, claiming two gold medals at the Junior South American Championships with the Brazilian team and winning individual titles on vault and bars.
In 2021, Andrade qualified to her first Olympics, and she made the most of her opportunity. Although she didn’t win an Olympic medal, she earned silver on vault and bronze on bars and floor exercise – all while competing alongside Biles and Lee, who are both on indefinite, perhaps permanent, breaks from the sport.
Andrade’s senior debut came at the Ljubljana World Cup in April, where she won silver on vault and finished seventh on bars. The following month, she was named to the Brazilian Olympic team along with Jade Barbosa, Daniele Hypolito, Lorrane Oliveira, and Flavia Saraiva at the Brazil Trophy. Andrade’s impressive performances on each of the events at the tournament secured her the gold medal.
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