For 25-year-old Rebeca Andrade, it all started from a bunk bed in a favela on the outskirts of Guarulhos, in São Paulo, Brazil. For the unversed, Favelas are the crowded slums where poor families live. In that shared bed with her seven siblings, she would climb and hang upside down. Not knowing what to do with her, the family landed in a gym with 4-year-old Rebeca, who, by that time, used to climb trees as swiftly as a squirrel! The rest is for the history books.

The girl who once used to walk two hours to reach the gym has become a trailblazer in the history of Brazilian artistic gymnastics. Bagging a vault gold and an all-around silver at the Tokyo Olympics, she became the first female Brazilian gymnast to bring back home a medal from the Olympic Games. Once again in Paris, despite losing the all-around gold to Simone, she made the GOAT say, “She scares me most.” While we do not know any gymnast who Rebeca scares the most, her financial struggles were definitely debilitating.

Gymnastics has not only given fame to Rebeca Andrade. It gave the financial footing that she and her family have vied for throughout their lives. From buying her first apartment with her first earnings to being counted among the ‘rich’ in Brazil (As put forward by Georgette Vidor, a gymnastics coach at the gym where Rebeca trains), it has always been vaulting over obstacles for Rebeca. Let us take a look at how this resilience has paid off for the Cheng vault specialist, who snubbed Simone Biles for the vault gold in the 2023 world championships.

What is the net worth of Rebeca Andrade?

Beyond national glory, the Flamengo gymnast indeed enjoys a lofty net worth. As per Latin Post, Rebeca Andrade’s net worth is estimated at $1.5 million, a whopping figure. Notably, this is tantamount to a total of the income she draws from her sports career, alongside that which she generates via the brands. What’s more, it is an apt reflection of the eminence she has established beyond the gymnastics arena.

Skimming through Andrade’s social media, one can see the icon, marketing several brand campaigns. From posing for Parmalat to endorsing a range of Nivea products or vouching for Invisalign, the categories she represents are simply diverse. And the list doesn’t end here. It covers Volvo, Riachuelo, Listerine, Marie Claire, Vult, and multiple other brands.

Extending beyond lifestyle or beauty brands, Andrade was also associated with the tech giant Panasonic. As part of her association with them, she represented the company’s Green Impact campaign. Moreover, just recently, given Barbie’s 65th year, 9 female athletes were immortalized as Barbie dolls. And joining some of those cross-sports phenoms was Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade. She took to her Instagram, posing with the doll she was honored with. However, Andrade, the 2021 Vogue Brasil cover feature, never had it easy.

“The hardest part was the financial aspect. My mother walked to work so that I could use her bus pass to go to the gym with my brother,” Andrade had told in an interview with CGTN America. How hard? Let’s get some stats.

In 2023, the monthly fee for 3 gymnastics lessons per week at Flamengo, one of the best gymnastics clubs in the country, was $523 reais — about $92. That is equivalent to 40% of the minimum monthly wage in Brazil. Therefore a low-income family like Andrade’s has to rely on programs that offer free training. Sadly, as Vidor stated to NPR, most of the talented gymnasts in Brazil comes from low-income families. According to her, this stems from the socio-economic scenario of Brazil.

She pointed out that gymnastics is a tough sport, without much scope for recreation or holiday. Because of the rigorous training regime the financially affluent families usually do not send their children to gymnastics. But the very sport is a ticket to a better life for the poorer section. “You get parents who see gymnastics as a way for their kids to have a better life, to travel, to get better education, to have access to better doctors. It becomes a way to achieve their dreams,” Vidor noted. That is exactly what Rebeca got from the sport.

Rebeca’s mother, who used to work as a maid, is now in France watching her daughter. The sport has given her the opportunity to bring this to her family. And that is another winning ground for Rebeca, Vidor believes. “The girls [in the gym] were ecstatic and jumping up and down. It is so important for them to see this, They dream of having a better life through the sport,” the coach explained. But for Rebeca, more struggles awaited as she started her journey, overcoming financial hardships.

Major achievements of the gymnastics icon amidst three terrible ACL injuries

Like most athletes, injuries were a part and parcel of Andrade’s quest for acclaim. Andrade bravely battled 3 critical injuries, only to rise back stronger each time. The earliest one sprang up in 2015, when her impacted ACL thwarted her World Championships plans that year. But she was not one to give up.

Redeeming herself the next year, she competently qualified for the Rio Olympics, only to have returned empty-handed from the meet. This did not dampen her resolve even minutely as she embraced 2017, practicing relentlessly to shine at the World Championships. But, her unlucky streak at the event continued as her full potential was restricted by another ACL injury, eventually leading her to withdraw.

Only when she thought: two injuries in two years, Andrade was shocked with another in 2019. Brazil’s gymnastics team faced a setback when she, as one of their top contenders, got injured. However, as per Olympics.com, the repetitive pattern offered Andrade better clarity on coping with it. She confessed, “Since it was the third time this happened, I had a bit more body awareness, and I also knew a little more about the process of this rehabilitation.” 

Thereafter, Andrade seemed an unstoppable force! She etched history in Tokyo and clinched a dual treat- a gold and a silver at the World Championships 2021. The Pan American Championships 2021 too registered an Andrade-storm, as she swept two golds off the racks. Continuing to stay in the ‘doubles’, she brought back gold and bronze the next year from the same event. Up and above, in 2023, she reached a 5-medal haul.

And with her silver all-around one, she joined Simone Biles and Shilese Jones, gracing the first-ever all-around podium that featured three black gymnasts at a world championship. Rebeca Andrade has had her bittersweet injury moments, however, her achievements are versatile and have helped her make a mark globally.