Rebeca Andrade pushes Biles, but settles for Olympics silver

Rebeca Andrade gave Simone Biles a scare, but she’ll settle for another gymnastics silver

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Rebeca Andrade, of Brazil, performs on the balance beam during the women’s artistic gymnastics all-around finals in Bercy Arena at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

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Rebeca Andrade, of Brazil, is reflected on a surface as she performs on the balance beam during the women’s artistic gymnastics all-around finals in Bercy Arena at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

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Rebeca Andrade, of Brazil, celebrates after performing on the balance beam during the women’s artistic gymnastics all-around finals in Bercy Arena at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

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Rebeca Andrade, of Brazil, smiles during the women’s artistic gymnastics all-around finals in Bercy Arena at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

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Rebeca Andrade, of Brazil, is reflected on a surface while performing on the balance beam during the women’s artistic gymnastics all-around finals in Bercy Arena at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

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Rebeca Andrade, of Brazil, performs on the uneven bars during the women’s artistic gymnastics all-around finals in Bercy Arena at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN

PARIS (AP) — Rebeca Andrade won’t be remembered as the woman who beat Simone Biles in her prime.

Silver — again — hardly seemed like a disappointment to her.

“I’ve worked so hard to achieve this,” Andrade said. “It’s just unbelievable. I had so much fun, every single moment has been sensational.”

Andrade finished second behind the American superstar Thursday at the Paris Olympics after a tense women’s all-around gymnastics finals that was settled by Biles’ phenomenal floor routine on the last rotation.

Still an enviable status when you’re up against the most decorated athlete in the history of gymnastics?

“Simone is the best, and she brings out the best of me,” Andrade said.

The 25-year-old Brazilian surged past Biles midway through the all-around finals at raucous Bercy Arena and had the opportunity to produce the biggest upset of the Games so far after Biles botched a transition on uneven bars.

But Biles fought back. She turned in a great beam routine and was amazing on the floor exercise to turn things around as she claimed a second gold in the competition, eight years after her triumph in Rio de Janeiro.

Andrade had nothing to be ashamed of matching the silver she won behind American Sunisa Lee in 2021. Lee finished third behind Andrade on Thursday.

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She was consistent on all four apparatuses and capped her evening with a beautiful floor exercise full of energy and elegance. She lost by 1.199 points, one of the closest winning margin for Biles at a major international event.

Biles had just been exceptional, and Andrade just slightly less extraordinary.

Biles said she never had been so stressed in an all-around final, joking that she no longer wants to compete against Andrade.

“She’s way too close,” she said. “I’ve never had an athlete that close, so it definitely put me on my toes.”

Biles and Andrade bear similarities. They are both super versatile, both extremely clean in their routines and both excel on vault and floor.

Andrade finished second to Biles in qualifying and was extremely close to her American friend in the team’s final, where she led Brazil to bronze for the country’s first-ever medal in the competition.

Over the years, the rivals often have been close.

They both competed at their first Olympics at Rio in 2016, when Biles claimed her first all-around gold. And when Biles took a break from gymnastics to focus on her mental health, Andrade won the all-around title at the 2022 world championships.

While Biles’ issues in Tokyo were related to her psyche, Andrade has been struggling with serious physical injuries that threatened to end her career.

Andrade, who was born and raised in a favela outside Sao Paulo, suffered three ACL tears in 2015, 2017 and 2019. She was not sure she would be able to recover in time for the Tokyo Games. But the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the Summer Games back to 2021, and Andrade’s knee held up just fine.

There, she became the first Brazilian woman to win Olympic medals in artistic gymnastics; gold in the vault competition, and silver in the individual all-around. She is up to nine medals in world championships, including three golds.

Biles made a successful comeback last year to reclaim the all-around world title, but Andrade managed to deny her the vault title. In the Belgian city of Antwerp, their mutual respect and admiration was on display when Biles pretended to move an imaginary crown from her head to Andrade’s.

“I know what she went through in Tokyo and I’m so proud I was able to compete with her,” Andrade said. “She is just a phenomenon.”

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Olympic Hightlights

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FILE - South Africa’s Jacques Freitag competes in the men’s high jump of the 2004 Olympic Games, in the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Friday Aug. 20, 2004. Local media is reporting that South African police have discovered the body of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag after he went missing last month. The reports said the 42-year-old, who won the 2003 world title in Paris and competed at the 2004 Olympics, had been shot. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

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FILE - Jacques Freitag of South Africa waves his national flag after he won the Men’s high jump event at the World Athletics Championships, at the Stade de France in Saint Denis, north of Paris, Monday, Aug. 25, 2003. Local media is reporting that South African police have discovered the body of former high jump world champion Jacques Freitag after he went missing last month. The reports said the 42-year-old, who won the 2003 world title in Paris and competed at the 2004 Olympics, had been shot. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle, File)

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Sammy Sullivan of USA in action during HSBC rugby sevens series in Singapore, on May 4, 2024. The anthem played as Army officer Sammy Sullivan stood to attention and saluted beside her U.S. rugby teammates before a gold-medal game in Hong Kong against Olympic champion New Zealand. No prizes for guessing where her mind may have drifted to: Paris in July. (AP Photo/Suhaimi Abdullah)

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USA Water Polo Women’s Senior National Team attacker Ryann Neushul, left, trains at Long Beach City College Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, in Long Beach, Calif. Following in the footsteps of two older sisters who won gold with the U.S. women’s water polo team, Ryann Neushul is making her Olympic debut in Paris this summer. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

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Iranian wrestler Iman Mahdavi, 28, practices at the Lotta Club Seggiano gym, in Pioltello , northern Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

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FILE - Steven van de Velde of the Netherlands competes during the CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup Vienna 2022 men’s semifinal game against Austria at the Red Bull Beach Arena in Vienna, Austria, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2022. Van de Velde, convicted and imprisoned eight years ago for raping an underage girl in England has qualified for the Paris Olympics. (AP Photo/Florian Schroetter, File)