Rebeca Andrade: "If you want to make it happen, you can do it"

In the last 18 months, Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade has made history – a lot of it.

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, held in the summer of 2021, the 23-year-old became the first from her nation to win Olympic gymnastics gold, taking the vault title, and also the first Brazilian to climb to the all-around podium, finishing second behind Team USA’s Sunisa Lee.

She followed that success up with vault gold and uneven bars silver at the 2021 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan.

Most recently, she achieved another Brazilian first, winning all-around gold at the World Championships in Liverpool, England.

Watching her these past 18 months, Andrade has made it look easy as she effortlessy mastered jumping, flipping and balancing.

But behind all that history, 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.

ACL tears in 2015, 2017 and 2019 would have given her every excuse to move on from the sport. Instead, she forged ahead, making history as a reward.

“I really wanted an achievement like this in the individual all-around, because I think that's where I have the most chances with vaulting, as well,” said Andrade during an exclusive interview with Olympics.com after the conclusion of the World Championships. “But having in my career, even just once in my life, being the most complete athlete in the world was very important to me. This gold is very important to me, so I am very happy.”

• Rebeca Andrade: "I am an athlete who likes to compete"

• Rebeca Andrade: "I knew I had talent and understood all my possibilities"

Rebeca Andrade: ‘Baile de Favela’

Andrade’s story has humble beginnings, to say the least.

One of eight children of a single mum, Rosa, Andrade’s talent was recognised at an early age. She walked hours to practise from the favela outside Sao Paulo where she lived until she turned 10.

Her talents moved her to Rio and the Flamengo club where she still trains today and, eventually, her successes allowed her to help change her family’s life, including buying them an apartment.

She’s paid homage to her roots the past two seasons with a floor routine set to ‘Baile de Favela.’

It’s been an instant classic for the gymnast.

“I think everyone really liked it and it was a song that suited me, that I would like to introduce myself with, I still like it and it will be very difficult for us to find a song that will be as successful as this one,” Andrade said of the routine, which intends to change for the 2023 season. “But I hope that we will be able to find it.”

She also hopes it will be remembered for offering something much bigger than being an iconic gymnastics exercise.

“I think it's to be believed, to know that even with all the difficulties, you have the capacity to achieve whatever you want,” said Andrade of the story behind her music selection. “Not only listening to the music, but also seeing my journey, seeing my story for people not only within the sport, but also outside. To know that it is really difficult, but that if you want, if you have the will, if you want to make it happen, you can do it. I think that's the message it sends.”

The belief that Andrade has in her ability, that has pushed her through tough times and high stakes moments, has come, she says, in part from having seen her countrywoman Daiane dos Santos, Brazil’s first gymnastics world champion, achieve history.

“I know how important it is for you to have someone to be a mirror, to be inspired by,” Andrade said.

“I have Daiane dos Santos like this for me. So today playing that role, like she did for me, is very good. It is very important for children and adolescents, for adults. I really like to be that reference and I always try to be the best I can so that people continue to mirror me.”

Rebeca Andrade: “The main goal is to be happy and healthy”

She, along with coach Francisco Porath, have been cautious in the years following her third ACL tear. Picking and choosing when to do floor.

In 2022, she only performed on the floor exercise twice prior to the Worlds and even when she did, she opted for lesser difficulty.

"I talk a lot with my coach 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 in Liverpool of the strategy. "So, when I really tell him that I can't do it, it's because I cannot and he always respects that.”

This approach seems to be working – and Andrade shows no signs of stopping.

She wants a trip to Paris 2024 and a third Games, but isn’t focused on medals.

“The main goal is to be healthy and happy,” she says of upcoming Olympics.

Oh, and to be there with her team. In 2019, with Andrade sitting in the stands at the World Championships just a few months removed from injury, she watched as her teammates collapsed with more injury and missed routines.

They finished 14th, two spots removed from Olympic qualification.

“And the other [goal], which is the main one, is for us to qualify as a team,” Andrade said. “I think it will be very important for me, for my team, and the focus is on that, whatever happens there, the result is a consequence of our work, of our commitment. But I really want to be there with my team and be happy and healthy.”