Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade will face off against Simone Biles in the individual all-around, vault, balance beam and floor exercise finals this week.
Topline
U.S. gymnast Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast of all time, is expected to dominate at the Olympics—but she may face unprecedented competition from Rebeca Andrade, Brazil’s top gymnast who plans on attempting a never-been-done-before vault in a bid to beat Biles in a rivalry that both gymnasts have embraced.Key Facts
Biles, 27, and Andrade, 25, will go head-to-head in several highly anticipated matchups this week, with both set to compete in the team, individual all-around, vault, balance beam and floor exercise finals.
Andrade qualified in second place, just behind Biles, for the all-around, vault and floor finals, and in third place behind Biles and China’s Zhou Yaqin for the beam final.
Biles dominated the qualifying round because she attempts the most difficult routines in the field: Scores are made up of a difficulty value, which awards points for how hard the skills in a routine are, and an execution score, which is judged based on how well skills are performed.
Biles scored a total of 59.566 in the qualification round, well ahead of Andrade’s 57.700.
To possibly catch Biles, Andrade plans to perform harder skills during competition this week to raise her difficulty scores, including a triple-twisting Yurchenko vault—a round-off onto the vaulting table, followed by a flip with three twists—which would carry a difficulty score of 6.0 and bear her name if she lands it, because no female gymnast has ever landed the skill in competition before.
Andrade’s new vault would inch her closer to the 6.4 difficulty value of Biles’ Yurchenko double pike—a round-off onto the vaulting table followed by two flips with her body bent at her hips—which has the highest difficulty value of any vault in women’s gymnastics.
