Santiago 2023 - Rebeca Andrade, Flavia Saraiva strike gold, silver on balance beam at Pan Am Games
Andrade, 24, leaves the Games with four medals, ending another historic season
Artistic Gymnastics
Rebeca Andrade couldn't help one more trip to the top of the podium Wednesday (25 October), leading a Brazilian one-two finish on the balance beam on the last day of artistic gymnastics competition at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
The Olympic, world and newly-crowned Pan Am Games vaulting champion snuck past compatriot and trainingmate Flavia Saraiva to win her second gold medal in as many days, 14.133 to 14.033.
Andrade leaves Santiago with four medals: team silver, vault gold, uneven bars silver and Wednesday's beam gold. Her title on the apparatus is the first for her nation.
"She [beam] started to like me now, she stopped pushing me off of it. I'm kidding! I didn't do anything different, but I feel better doing beam now," Andrade told Olympics.com afterward. "I never thought I was bad at it, but from all four, it's the one that I don't like that much because it's too hard mentally and keeping the body steady.
"On floor or vault, you can take a step to the side, you can adjust on bars, but not on beam," she continued, "You fight yourself a lot, so I think the improvement was in the head. Going more calm to the beam. Understanding that it's not a monster and I can just do my routine. My routine is not that hard anyway, but the calmer I am, the better it's gonna be."
Having competed at Toronto 2015, Lima 2019 and in Santiago, Saraiva's silver medal is her ninth at the Pan Ams and first on the balance beam.
American newcomer Kaliya Lincoln tumbled to gold, executing a double-double and full-twisting double layout in her two opening passes, for a 14.233. All-around winner Kayla DiCello and Saraiva shared the silver with matching 13.733 marks.
"I feel amazing. I had so much fun competing out there had just left out on the floor and had such a great time," Lincoln told Olympics.com.
In the men's final, Andrys Nin Reyes of Dominican Republic claimed a second-straight gold medal on the vault, while American Curran Phillips was the champion on the parallel bars.
Brazil's Arthur Mariano Nory claimed his fourth medal of the Pan Ams, taking gold on the high bar to wrap up artistic gymnastics action from Chile.