“She’s way too close. I’ve never had an athlete that close,” Simone Biles herself had put the stamp on Rebeca Andrade as her biggest rival after her gold in the Olympic all-around final. And why not? It was Rebeca who snubbed Simone for gold in the 2023 World Championships in Belgium. Come to the Paris Olympics 2024, the picture could have been repeated once again!

In the all-around final, a rare slip-up by Biles on the uneven bars opened the door for Andrade, who seized the moment and led the competition until the very last routine. Just when it seemed like Biles’ golden dream was slipping away, she delivered a flawless floor routine, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat and clinching the gold medal. But Rebeca had to do justice to the words Simone said about her!

And she did that on the floor final, making Simone settle for the silver, adding one more page to the nail-biting rivalry. But Larissa Salgado, president of Brazil’s gymnastics federation (FGERJ), had a different perspective on it which she had spelled out before the arch-rivals faced each other in the Olympic floor final. That might give us an understanding of why Rebeca is Simone’s toughest competitor.

In an August 2 YouTube video by UOL Esporte, a discussion revolved around the two gymnasts. A comparison of their scores in different routines in the all-around final was also presented to figure out the pros and cons of each of them. Looking at those, Salgado, mentioned, “It’s a game… training tomorrow anything can happen but the difficulty ratings for Biles is a little bigger than Rebeca’s, right? So that’s what elevates her score a little higher. For Rebeca’s execution is very good and in Biles the difficulty level is a little higher, that’s why this score.”

Salgado also mentioned that Biles had improved significantly on her jumps and on her ground routines that gives her the edge over her other competitors. She opined, “Then it increases in jump and on the ground a little.” One can easily understand Salgado’s analysis if they take a look at the vault final of the Paris Olympics.

In her first attempt on the vault, Simone performed her signature Yurchenko Double Pike, hopping back a little. The vault, one of the most difficult in women’s gymnastics, understandably has the highest difficulty value 6.4. This gives Simone an edge over her peers as Salgado pointed out. In her first vault, Simone received an execution value of  9.400. But was handed a 0.1 deduction for landing out of bounds. Even with that, just riding on the difficulty score, Simone scored a massive 15.700 in that attempt. Now come to the second one.

Simone performed a clean cheng on that. Again she took a small hop back, but that did not cause any major deduction. Cheng is also considered among the tough vaults with a difficulty value of 5.6 and Simone scored 9.300 in execution. Her 14.900 on the second attempt finally gave her a huge 15.300 average that put her in a comfortable spot. Now, if we look at Rebeca’s scores, it is easy to find out where the difference becomes unsurmountable.

In her first attempt, Rebeca pulled off a gorgeous cheng, almost sticking similar to what she did in the all-around final. Like that of Simone, Rebeca earned a difficulty score of 5.6, but her execution score was 9.500, higher than Simone’s. On her second attempt, Rebeca chose Amanar. This earned her a difficulty value of 5.4, whereas her execution score (9.433) was again slightly ahead of Simone.

But just because of the huge difference in difficulty value, Rebeca earned 15.100 and 14.833 in two attempts, significantly lowering her average to 14.966. In fact, in the floor finals as well, Simone’s difficulty value (6.9) was one full point above Rebeca’s 5.9. But Simone stepped out of bounds with both feet twice, getting her six deductions. As a result, in one more neck-to-neck competition, Rebeca (14.166) narrowly edged out Biles’ score of 14.133. Taking a cue from Salgado, one guest in the show also chimed in with her takes.

She stated that the long break that Simone Biles took after Tokyo has worked wonders for her. According to her, the gap allowed Biles to revisit her basics and get even stronger coming to Paris. Meanwhile, as the world is busy analyzing the two, both Andrade and Biles seem to be enjoying each other’s company. 

Simone Biles and Rebeca Andrade make each other better than ever 

As the saying goes, iron sharpens iron. Simone Biles and Rebeca Andrade are one of the best examples of that.

Throughout the entirety of Paris, both Biles and Andrade have been spotted cheering for each other. During the all-around final, despite losing out on the gold to Biles, Andrade marveled at Biles’ impeccable floor routine that propelled her to the top. In a conversation with AFP in May, Andrade had spelled out her reverence for Simone.

“It’s about doing my best, and I hope [Biles] does, too, that she does her best because it’s an honor to be able to compete alongside her,” the reigning vault world champion had said. That is not the only moment the two athletes created.

After the 2023 world championships, where Biles and Andrade both won medals in five events, Biles said she and Andrade “give each other the best push.” “I actually love competing with Rebeca. She does push me, she makes me want to stick all my landings,” Biles said, garlanding Andrade as a “phenomenal gymnast.” After the event, Simone was even captured on camera, taking an imaginary crown from her head and placing it on Andrade. This may seem like passing the baton. And that was not the only occasion Simone set such an instance.

Speaking about their closely fought Olympic battle, Biles said, “I don’t wanna compete with Rebeca no more! I am tired” Not only that, in a cryptic statement, Simone had said after the all-around competition, “It’s good. I’m gonna hand it to her now – she can have the rest.” But none of these could probably beat the moment that was created after the floor finals.

As the three medalists climbed the podium, Simone and Jordan Chiles (the then-bronze medalist) bowed to the gold medalist Rebeca. “You have to give them their flowers. And that’s exactly what me and Jordan were doing, and we were so happy for her. She [Rebeca] deserved it. She had the best floor routine of the day and in the Olympics. So it’s like, yeah, she deserved it,” Simone had said to Today on August 6 about the move. May the rivalry between the two live longer and continue to spell out the pinnacle of sportsmanship in the years to come.