Rebeca Andrade to compete at 2023 Pan American Games

Reigning world all-around champion Rebeca Andrade of Brazil will compete at the 2023 Pan American Games later this year, event organisers announced earlier this week.

The superstar gymnast, who won vault gold and all-around silver at the Tokyo 2020 Games, has yet to compete in 2023 but appears to have a busy second half of the year in the works with competitions at August's Brazilian national championships, September's World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium, and October's Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile.

Andrade, despite being a two-time Olympian, will be making her Pan American Games debut in Chile.

"The expectations [for the Pan Am Games] are very high," said Andrade in a video from Santiago 2023. "I did the opposite: first I went to the Olympic Games, then to a World Championships, and now I'm going to participate in my first Pan American Games. It's going to be sensational."

Competition in Santiago is a Paris 2024 qualifier for artistic gymnatics, though the majority of the quota spots are on offer at the 2023 Worlds in Belgium.

U.S. champ Konnor McClain to join LSU squad in the fall

Reigning U.S. national champion Konnor McClain will compete for Louisiana State University while also training for the 2024 Paris Olympics, according to a report by ESPN.

McClain had previously planned to defer her freshman year of college, but now believes competing in college gymnastics will help her rediscover her love for the sport as she continues toward her dream of competing at the Olympic Games.

"It's not the original route I was going for," McClain told ESPN, "but I believe I have to take a different route to get to my happiest place. I'll return to elite competition after the NCAA season next year."

McClain has not competed since winning the 2022 national title, having been set back by injuries, surgeries and two coaching changes since last August.

She told Olympics.com last month that she was working to return to full-time training and had hoped to compete in August's U.S. Classic and U.S. Championships.

“If they say I can’t do something, I want to come back even better,” McClain said at the time of her struggles. "I want to prove them wrong and show them that I can do it and that I’m better than what they think I am.”

From the vault...

This week, we take a look back at Team Spain on floor exercise during qualifying at the 2004 Olympic Games at Athens, Greece. The squad was led by Patricia Moreno’s 9.587 and Elena Gomez’s 9.500. In the medal round, Spain finished fifth overall.