Brazilian Rebeca Andrade wins historic world all-around title in Liverpool

Some things are worth the wait.

Tokyo 2020 vault gold medallist Rebeca Andrade of Brazil proved as much Thursday (3 November), winning her nation's first world all-around gold some seven years after her senior international debut.

The 23-year-old scored 56.899 to take the title at the 2022 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool, England.

"Everything always happens when it needs to, and I am really happy to have done everything I could," said Andrade. "I feel really incredible and satisified with the competition."

American Shilese Jones was second at 55.399, followed by Great Britain's Jessica Gadirova (55.199). Gadirova's bronze is the first for a British woman at the global event.

The gymnastics world had been waiting for Andrade's once-in-a-generation talent to come to fruition since she first made her senior international debut in 2015.

But ACL tears in 2015, 2017 and 2019 hampered her progress until her triumphant, historic performance at the Tokyo Games where she became the first Brazilian woman to claim Olympic gold and the first to climb to the all-around podium, taking silver behind Team USA's Sunisa Lee.

"All my effort was worth it and all that I've been through was worth it," Andrade told Olympics.com days after her Tokyo triumphs. "Everybody struggles in life, unfortunately, it's just the way it is. But it isn't forever. Just as sadness does, happiness comes around, too."

There was plenty of joy for Team Brazil Thursday inside M&S Arena as Andrade led from start to finish in the final. She got competition underway with an exquisite Cheng vault (round off on to the board, half turn onto the vault table, front flip with a one-and-a-half twist) to score 15.166.

Andrade had a nervous effort on the uneven bars, finishing several of her pirouetting elements short of the required vertical handstand and going the wrong way on a cast handstand, but she held her composure through it all. Still, the errors cost her as her 13.800 score was .866 lower than her qualifying routine.

But she righted the ship on the balance beam earning a 13.533 for a solid effort that dismounted with a round off, back handspring, double pike.

Andrade closed out the competition with a stellar performance on the floor exercise to cap her win. It was just her fifth floor routine of the season, as she performed on the apparatus only twice prior to these championships.

"I talk a lot with my coach [Francisco Porath] and we trust in each other. We always try to be really safe, and do floor in the correct moments. He believes in me. I'm never going to lie to not do it," said Andrade through translation of her strategy in 2022. "So, when I really tell him that I can't do it, it's because I cannot and he always respects that. We have a really good connection."

A year ago just two months removed from Tokyo, Andrade went to the World Championships in Kitakyushu as a favourite in the all-around, but chose to sit out of the floor exercise in order to not put undue stress on her knee. It's a decision without any regret, she says.

"For sure," said Andrade when asked if skipping last years all-around event was the right decision, "and everybody can see that today."

For Jones, it's a been an epic climb to the top of her sport after a 2021 where she missed being named as one of the U.S. Olympic alternates by one place and then suffered the loss of her father, Sylvester, after a long battle with kidney disease.

After nearly a decade of training far from her native Washington state in Ohio, Jones returned home earlier this year in part to honour her father.

"This is honestly what he wanted for me. He's told me since we moved to Ohio. He's like, 'You know, you need to come back home and do it where you started and you know, there's still more left in you,'" said Jones at July's U.S. Classic. "He definitely was a role model for me. He pushed me every single day."

Thursday in Liverpool, she was rock solid on all four events, registering scores of 14.233, vault; 14.366, uneven bars; 13.100, balance beam; and 13.700, floor exercise. Earlier this week, she was an integral part of the U.S. team's sixth-straight gold medal.

"This whole last competition, heading in, I was thinking of him," Jones said of her father. "And doing that last floor routine, it meant so much to me. No matter what the placement was or what the score was, I was driven to it. I was super proud of myself."

The strategy was simple, says coach Sarah Korngold: nothing special, nothing extra.

"We just talked to her about believing in herself and trusting herself. She does the work every single day. She trains hard and to compete normally. You don’t need to be extra, you don’t need to be special. You’re already special," said Korngold. "So, just go out and do what you do and be normal."

The near sellout crowd on hand delighted at Gadirova's every turn - and she their cheers, often turning to the crowd after each of her hit routines.

"I thought, 'It's Liverpool, it's my home country,' I just want them to have the best experience and for me to have a great experience, as well," said Gadirova. "So, I wanted to get the crowd involved and show them my appreciation, and just be like, 'I can hear you, keep going, keep cheering!'"

As her 14.400 floor exercise score flashed in the arena, the crowd erupted and history was made.

"I'm just speechless and can't believe I've made history once again," said Gadirova, who on Tuesday was part of the highest placing British women's team ever. "I just want to make my country proud. I think every little girl's dream is to do a World Championships and get a medal one day but I never thought it would be a possibility of mine. I guess if you do the hard work and keep pushing, no matter what happens, just keep believing and anything is possible."

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