By Lucía LACURCIA

She grew up in a favela in Brazil, and through talent and resilience, she entered the world elite of artistic gymnastics. Rebecca Andrade challenged Simone Biles' reign and transformed the Olympic panorama of this sport.

At the age of 25, this young black woman is the greatest Olympic medalist in her country's history, with six medals (two golds, three silvers, and one bronze).

Two decades have passed since he started doing pirouettes on the mats of a community gym in Guarulhos, a working-class municipality in the suburbs of São Paulo.

No one at the time could have imagined that this slim, restless girl would become an international star.

The world set its sights on the Tokyo 2020 Games, postponed to 2021 because of the pandemic. There, she won the gold medal in the vault and silver in the all-around, a milestone for Brazil, which was far from a power in gymnastics.

It was also a warning to the U.S. hegemony embodied by Biles, who unexpectedly withdrew from the competition due to a difficulty in orienting herself in the air during the tests.

Three years later, in Paris-2024, Andrade's definitive consecration came, even with Biles back and as a favorite.

The American won the team gold, the individual competition gold, and the jumping gold. But the Brazilian won the floor final, a victory that made her the protagonist of an iconic moment: Biles bowing to her on the podium.

"Rebecca is amazing, she's a queen," Biles said. Her winning "was the right thing to do," she conceded.

"I'm not going to give up"

Her unique style combines physical power, technical precision and Latin expressiveness, the Brazilian's trademark, with routines that incorporate dance moves, often to the rhythm of funk, a genre born in the slums of her country.

Tenacity and resilience were also decisive in the face of the numerous obstacles that tested his mettle.

Multiple injuries and three knee surgeries between 2015 and 2019 rocked his career.

She has recounted that she would not have made it through without the support of her mother, Rosa, her coach, and even Biles, who at the 2018 World Championships surprised her with a few words of encouragement, telling her she had talent and not to give up.

"I was sitting, she was walking by, and out of nowhere, she sat down next to me and told me that. I got super happy, and I was like, 'Oh my God, the best in the world told me not to give up. Now I'm sure I'm not going to give up,'" she told TV Globo.

Immense pride

Rebeca Andrade was born on May 8, 1999 in a humble home supported by her mother, Rosa Santos, a domestic worker who raised eight children on her own.

Lack of money sometimes forced her to make the two-hour walk with her older brother to the gym."I was missing more than I was going," she has recounted.

The epic nature of her rise to Olympic glory recently prompted her selection as one of the 100 most influential women of 2024 by the BBC.

But, above all, he is a source of inspiration for thousands of young Brazilians who can see themselves represented in "Rebe".

"I hope I can inspire children to believe and achieve their dreams," she said in an interview while preparing for the Paris Games.

"I believed and I had many people by my side who believed with me, in the good times and in the not-so-good times. And it worked out well," he added.

Monica Barros dos Anjos, her first trainer, told AFP that she felt "immense pride" at the thought that Andrade had left that gym in the suburbs of São Paulo, just like the dozens of girls who train there, in front of a huge mural with the face of their idol.

© Agence France-Presse