Rebeca Andrade Wins Vault Gold Medal at World Artistic Gymnastics Championships

Rebeca Andrade has vaulted her way to another world title…

At the the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, the 24-year-old Brazilian gymnast and Olympic gold medalist denied Simone Biles a 22nd world title on Saturday by pulling ahead of the American superstar and winning her second women’s vault title.

Rebeca Andrade,Andrade capitalized after Biles couldn’t control her first vault.

She averaged a 14.750 for the gold with Biles at 14.549. Andrade is the 2020 Tokyo Games champion in the event, and took her first world title in the event in 2021.

Rebeca Andrade,“I’m really happy about this for Brazil, it’s another gold,” Andrade told Olympics.com afterward. “I don’t know if I expected it in my mind, of course, we always try to win, but the principal goal is to do my part.”

2020 Olympic bronze medalist Yeo Seo-jeong claimed her first world medal on the event in third (14.416). The medal is also a first for the Republic of Korea on the event at Worlds.

Andrade is the first Brazilian female gymnast to medal at an Olympic Games, and she is only the second Brazilian woman to win a gold medal at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

https://twitter.com/IzbasaG/status/1710650505205088349

Brazil Women’s Gymnastics Team Wins Historic Silver Medal at World Artistic Gymnastics Championships

Rebeca Andrade and her teammates have made gymnastics history…

The 24-year-old Brazilian gymnast and Olympic gold medalist and her Brazil teammates have made history at the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, becoming the first South American team to ever win a medal in the team competition.

Brazil Women's Gymnastics TeamThe Brazilian team claimed the silver medal with a score of 165.530, coming in 2.199 points behind the United States.

Brazil’s score in the qualifying round had already qualified them for Paris 2024 as a team.

Led by Simone Biles, the U.S. took the gold and their seventh straight team title.

France completed the podium, coming in third. But even on the same stage as arguably the greatest gymnast of all time, Simone Biles, the Brazilian team, led by 2022 world all-around champion Rebeca Andrade, managed to shine bright.

Andrade, the first Brazilian female gymnast to medal at an Olympic Games, clinched the medal for the Brazilian team with a clutch vault. But it was the team’s steady performances that elevated them to a second-place finish no one was expecting and few had even dared hope for.

But Brazilian’s Andrade, Jade Barbosa, Flavia Saraiva, Lorrane Oliviera and Julia Soares were more than happy with making their own kind of history.

In 2019, the Brazilian team missed qualifying for the Olympics. Now they’re silver medalists at the 2023 World Championships and they are going to the 2024 Paris Games. Not just that, they’ll have a chance to do more than just represent their country. This Brazilian team, with much less institutional support than the US, has proven it can compete with the best teams in the world.

“Today we have accomplished something we have worked for for more than five Olympic cycles,” said Barbosa. “It’s difficult to put into words: this is something Brazil has always strived for,” she added “I did it not just for this generation but for all the generations.”

Raúl Yzaguirre to Receive Presidential Medal of Freedom

Raúl Yzaguirre is being feted by the White House

The 82-year-old Mexican America civil rights activist is among this year’s 17 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the White House has announced.

Raúl YzaguirrePresented to individuals who have “made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace or other significant societal, public or private endeavors,” the Medal is the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Yzaguirre served as the Chief Executive Officer and president of the National Council of La Raza for 30 years. He also served as U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic under President Barack Obama.

Former The University of Texas at Brownsville president Dr. Julieta García is also being honored.

The Mexican American education executive was named one of Time magazine’s best college presidents. Dr. García was the first Hispanic woman to serve as a college president and dedicated her career to serving students from the Southwest Border region.

Other recipients this year include Denzel Washington, Simone Biles, the late Sen. John McCain, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and Olympic gold medalist Megan Rapinoe.

The awards will be presented at the White House next Thursday, July 7.

Here’s a look at the individuals who will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom:

  • Simone Biles is the most decorated American gymnast in history, with a combined total of 32 Olympic and World Championship medals. Biles is also a prominent advocate for athletes’ mental health and safety, children in the foster care system, and victims of sexual assault.
  • Sister Simone Campbell is a member of the Sisters of Social Service and former Executive Director of NETWORK, a Catholic social justice organization. She is also a prominent advocate for economic justice, immigration reform, and healthcare policy.
  • Dr. Julieta García is the former president of The University of Texas at Brownsville, where she was named one of Time magazine’s best college presidents. Dr. García was the first Hispanic woman to serve as a college president and dedicated her career to serving students from the Southwest Border region.
  • Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was the youngest woman ever elected to the Arizona State Senate, serving first in the Arizona legislature and later in the U.S. Congress. A survivor of gun violence, she co-founded Giffords, a nonprofit organization dedicated to gun violence prevention.
  • Fred Gray was one of the first black members of the Alabama State legislature since Reconstruction. As an attorney, he represented Rosa Parks, the NAACP, and Martin Luther King, who called him “the chief counsel for the protest movement.”
  • Steve Jobs (died 2011) was the co-founder, chief executive, and chair of Apple, Inc., CEO of Pixar and held a leading role at the Walt Disney Company. His vision, imagination and creativity led to inventions that have, and continue to, change the way the world communicates, as well as transforming the computer, music, film and wireless industries.
  • Father Alexander Karloutsos is the former Vicar General of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. After over 50 years as a priest, providing counsel to several U.S. presidents, he was named by His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as a Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
  • Khizr Khanis a Gold Star father and founder of the Constitution Literacy and National Unity Center. He is a prominent advocate for the rule of law and religious freedom and served on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom under President Biden.
  • Sandra Lindsayis a New York critical care nurse who served on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic response. She was the first American to receive a COVID-19 vaccine outside of clinical trials and is a prominent advocate for vaccines and mental health for health care workers.
  • John McCain (died 2018) was a public servant who was awarded a Purple Heart with one gold star for his service in the U.S. Navy in Vietnam. He also served the people of Arizona for decades in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate and was the Republican nominee for president in 2008.
  • Diane Nash is a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee who organized some of the most important civil rights campaigns of the 20th century. Nash worked closely with Martin Luther King, who described her as the “driving spirit in the nonviolent assault on segregation at lunch counters.”
  • Megan Rapinoeis an Olympic gold medalist and two-time Women’s World Cup champion. She also captains OL Reign in the National Women’s Soccer League. She is a prominent advocate for gender pay equality, racial justice, and LGBTQI+ rights.
  • Alan Simpson served as a U.S. Senator from Wyoming for 18 years. During his public service, he has been a prominent advocate on issues including campaign finance reform, responsible governance, and marriage equality.
  • Richard Trumka (died 2021) was president of the 12.5-million-member AFL-CIO for more than a decade, president of the United Mine Workers, and secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO. Throughout his career, he was an outspoken advocate for social and economic justice.
  • Brigadier General Wilma Vaughtis one of the most decorated women in the history of the U.S. military, repeatedly breaking gender barriers as she rose through the ranks. When she retired in 1985, she was one of only seven women generals in the Armed Forces.
  • Denzel Washington is an actor, director, and producer who has won two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, two Golden Globes, and the 2016 Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award. He has also served as National Spokesman for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America for over 25 years.
  • Raúl Yzaguirre is a civil rights advocate who served as CEO and president of National Council of La Raza for thirty years. He also served as U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic under President Barack Obama.

Rebeca Andrade Becomes Brazil’s First-Ever Female Olympic Medalist in Gymnastics at the Tokyo Games

2020 Tokyo Games

Rebeca Andrade may have come short of the gold, but she’s still earned her place in Olympic history…

The 22-year-old Brazilian gymnast claimed the silver medal in the women’s gymnastics all-around competition at the 2020 Tokyo Games, becoming the first female Brazilian gymnast in Olympic history to stand on the podium.

Rebeca Andrade

“I am super happy,” Andrade said. “I hoped for this moment, and I have trained and worked super hard for this moment. I don’t have any words to describe how I am feeling, nor the feeling of having the Olympic silver medal around my neck.”

Andrade had been in medal competition the entire night at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre, and battled with eventual champion Sunisa Lee and bronze medalist Angelina Melnikova for the top spot on the leaderboard. It was hard to imagine that Andrade’s status for the Olympics had once been in doubt.

Rebeca Andrade

Andrade tore her anterior cruciate ligament for the third time in her career at the Brazilian Championships in 2019. She was sidelined for the remainder of the season, including the world championships, as she underwent surgery and rehabbed the injury — again. The injury was tough — and the emotional toll was even harder.

In her absence, the Brazilian team failed to qualify for the Olympics, and she needed to clinch a spot as an individual. She went to Baku, Azerbaijan, for her first meet back after injury in March 2020 for a World Cup event. During qualifying, she finished in second place on beam and in third place on bars, advancing to the event finals on both. But, like so many global sporting events during that month, the meet was canceled before any of the finals could get underway. Her comeback was paused yet again, and this time, indefinitely.

Rebeca Andrade

As Brazil was hit particularly hard by the coronavirus, many gyms were closed and training became inconsistent. She joined a delegation of 112 Brazilian athletes in Portugal in order to ensure she could continue preparing to qualify to the Olympics.

Then, in December 2020, she tested positive for the coronavirus. She was asymptomatic but had to withdraw from a competition and temporarily stop training while isolating.

Rebeca Andrade

Through it all, she worked with a sports psychologist who helped her stay focused on her long-term goal of going back to the Olympics. With limited events in 2021 and few opportunities to earn a spot for the Games, Andrade wasn’t even sure in early June whether she would secure a berth to Tokyo.

Her last shot was at the Pan American Championships in which the top two finishers would earn two of the final spots.

She won the all-around by more than four points.

Without her teammates by her side, Andrade qualified to the all-around final in second place, behind only Simone Biles. On Thursday, she showed no signs of slowing down as she took early control of the competition with an impressive Cheng vault — earning a 15.300, tied for the highest score on any event of the night.

She had a chance to clinch the gold medal on floor, her final event of the night. Despite having a higher degree of difficulty than Lee, Andrade stepped out of bounds twice and finished 0.135 overall behind Lee.

Still, the color of the medal didn’t seem to matter.

“I wanted to shine in the best way possible,” she said. “And I think I shined.”

After the medal ceremony, she posed for selfies and goofed around with Lee and Melnikova. None of them had arrived in Japan feeling the gold medal was in reach with Biles in the competition, and they all seemed surprised they had even had a chance in the end following Biles’ withdrawal.

“Simone is incredible, and knowing how she had to leave the competition was very difficult,” Andrade said. “People need to understand that we are not robots. We are human beings, and we have feelings like anyone else. That’s the same with me. … We feel the pressure. But I tried to keep my cool. I tried to put into practice everything that I trained with my psychologist, and it worked. I did all that I could, and I couldn’t be happier with my performance.”

After so many challenges on the path to the podium in Tokyo, Andrade knew she didn’t get to the end result on her own. She credited all those who have been in her corner, every step of the way, for helping her achieve her dream.

“This medal is not just mine, it’s one for everyone that knows my story, everything I have been through,” Andrade said. “There have been so many people that helped me along the way. I am very grateful for having them around. I wouldn’t have achieved this without them.”

Hernandez to Serve as a Presenter at the MTV Video Music Awards

Laurie Hernandez is ready to make music… or at least a music-related announcement.

The 16-year-old Puerto Rican gymnast, a member of the gold-winning Final Five and a silver medalist on the balance beam at the 2016 Rio Games, is heading to the MTV Video Music Awards.

Laurie Hernandez

Hernandez and her teammates, Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas and Madison Kocian, will present awards at Sunday’s show in New York City.

Jimmy Fallon, Kim Kardashian, Alicia Keys and Puff Daddy will also present awards, while attendees at Madison Square Garden will include Kanye West, Bryson Tiller, 2 Chainz, DNCE, Desiigner and Troye Sivan.

Britney Spears, Rihanna, Future, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, Nick Jonas and the Chainsmokers will perform during the live show.

Beyonce is the leading nominee with 11, followed by Adele with eight nominations.

Beyonce, Adele, West, Justin Bieber and Drake will compete for video of the year.

Hernandez Bests Simone Biles to Claim Silver in Women’s Balance Beam at the 2016 Rio Games

2016 Rio Games

Laurie Hernandez is proving to be the future of U.S. Gymnastics…

The 16-year-old Puerto Rican gymnast, who helped the American team win the gold in the women’s gymnastics competition, has beamed her way on the medal podium on her own at the 2016 Rio Games.

Laurie Hernandez

Hernandez capped a rollercoaster Olympic with a silver medal of her own on balance beam, eclipsing teammate Simone Biles in the apparatus final on Monday.

Hernandez, the youngest member of a team that also includes 2012 London Games veterans Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas, has held her share of the spotlight here with ups and downs that her coach freely acknowledges.

An internet GIF of Hernandez winking at judges before her floor routine last week has made the rounds online, and the Old Bridge native’s animated personality and potential longevity in the sport figure to open more doors for her after the Olympics. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton adapted her campaign slogan to root for Hernandez on Twitter, announcing #ImWithHernandez. John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars, also tweeted his congratulations, to the delight of Hernandez, who cites the book as a favorite.

Laurie Hernandez

Despite Hernandez’s growing profile, the U.S. team’s initial qualification-round lineup gave Biles, Raisman and Douglas a shot at getting into the individual all-around final, while Hernandez was left on the sidelines rooting for them. Biles and Raisman went on to take gold and silver in the all-around, respectively.

That was a blow for Hernandez, who has beaten Raisman and Douglas in competition at times in the past year, and who was left with her one chance for an individual medal on beam. But, that didn’t seem to dampen her experience throughout the Games.

“She’s going home with two medals, a gold and a silver. That’s amazing. This is her first really major international competition,” says Maggie Haney, Hernandez’s coach.

Hernandez Helps Lead the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team to Gold at the 2016 Rio Games

2016 Rio Games

Laurie Hernandez isn’t old enough to vote, but she’s already a golden girl…

The 16-year-old Puerto Rican gymnast helped lead her team to gold in the women’s gymnastics competition at the 2016 Rio Games.

Laurie Hernandez & the US Women's Gymnastics Team

Hernandez and her teammates, the self-proclaimed “Final Five,” proved that the Americans really were just as dominant as they looked during team qualifications, easily winning gold at the 2016 Summer Olympics.

It’s the first time that the U.S. women have won back-to-back gold medals at an Olympic Games.

Russia took home the silver, while China wrangled the bronze away from Japan.

And after Simone Biles’ score went up as the final competitor on floor exercise, the team also announced its much-anticipated team name: the “Final Five.”

Laurie Hernandez

The U.S. women opened up on vault with Hernandez, an upstart, putting up a 15.100. Hernandez found herself in the vault lineup after outscoring teammate Gabby Douglas during qualifying. Aly Raisman continued her run of impressive Amanars and nailed the landing once again for a huge 15.833. Biles did what she has been doing for the last three years and scored a 15.933 with a stellar Amanar of her own.

The Americans moved onto the uneven bars where Douglas and Madison Kocian each got their moment to shine. It was the only event that both gymnasts would appear on in the team final competition. They did not disappoint. Douglas put up a 15.766, while Kocian hit the 15.9 mark for the second time at this Olympics with a 15.933.

Laurie Hernandez

On the balance beam, Raisman corrected the error she had on her side aerial in the qualifying meet to come away with a 15.000. The scores kept on building from there. Hernandez went up and was rock solid looking more like a veteran, than the young first-time Olympian that she is. Her 15.233 was just shy of the score that landed her in the balance beam event final. Biles had a minor bobble on her acrobatic series early on, but still put up the top score on beam for the United States.

“Man, we were ready,” Hernandez said. “So, so ready.”

The American women beat Russia by 8.209 points, the largest margin of victory since the 1960 Rome Games, where six athletes’ scores were included in each apparatus total. In Rio, only three individual scores were tallied in each event.

A three-time world champion, Biles is the overwhelming favorite to win all-around gold Thursday, but the mantle of breakout American star at these Olympics belongs to Hernandez.

About 36 hours before the start of the team competition, Martha Karolyi, the U.S. national team coordinator, told Hernandez she would be participating in three events—the vault, the balance beam and the floor exercise. Upon hearing the news, Hernandez, the first Latina gymnast on the U.S. team since Annia Hatch a dozen years ago, felt like screaming in joy. She was selected over Douglas, the reigning all-around Olympic gold medal winner, and Kocian, a specialist on the uneven bars.

“I’ve worked so hard for this moment, and I wanted to be out there for my country,” she said. “There was no doubt about my abilities at all in my mind.”

In the preliminary round of the team competition, Hernandez became a trending topic on Twitter after her floor exercise as she danced and tumbled her way into the imagination of fans across the globe. Nicknamed “Baby Shakira” and “The Human Emoji” for her vivid facial expressions, she engaged the crowd with a stage performer’s ease—a prodigy born to be in the bright lights.

In her final floor routine, she again dazzled spectators with her rhythmic moves, first learned in ballet lessons at the age of three. In between opening with a double layout and closing with a tucked double back, she danced like no one was looking, which caused everyone who was looking to roar.

Unable to contain her joy after sticking her final flip—a refreshing trait in women’s gymnastics—she blew kisses to the fans.

“I wish I could dance like Laurie,” Douglas said. “She can feel it during her floor routine like no one else I’ve ever seen. That’s why the crowd loves her so much, because it’s just natural for her.”

Much as the crowd loves her, they won’t see her in the individual floor final. Even though she finished with the third-best score Tuesday, each country can send only two athletes per event, and Biles and Raisman beat her out. She’ll next compete Monday in the balance beam final.

Hernandez to Compete with the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team at the 2016 Summer Games

She’s not old enough to vote, but Laurie Hernandez is old enough to go to the Olympics

The 16-year-old Puerto Rican gymnast is the first U.S.-born Latina since 1984 to compete at the Olympics with the U.S. gymnastics team, and she’s also one of the youngest U.S. athletes headed to the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Laurie Hernandez

Hernandez, who has won the hearts of many for her vibrant routines, continued her rapid ascension to become perhaps the best threat to Simone Biles’ long run at the top.

Her best event is the balance beam, a 45-second test of nerves that she treats like a workout on the beach. Her score of 15.7 over the weekend is gold-medal worthy if she can repeat it in Rio.

Six months ago, casual gymnastics fans didn’t know her name. By Sunday, Hernandez was a star. From the outside, Hernandez’s rise seems meteoric, an overnight sensation amid a boldfaced team of Olympic and world champions. But to those close to her, this moment has been inevitable.

“She has been in our program for so long. She grew up in our system,” said U.S. national team coordinator Martha Karolyi, who remembers first seeing Hernandez at a national developmental camp when Hernandez was about 9. “It’s not like she just popped up here.”

Hernandez began appearing on Olympic watch lists last year after winning the 2015 junior national championship. She turned senior at the beginning of 2016 and celebrated her 16th birthday on June 9, but her relative lack of elite international experience makes what she has done over the past six months even more incredible. From March until June, she took a trio of bronze medals in the all-around at the City of Jesolo Trophy in Italy, Pac Rim Championships and the national championships.

“She proved herself over these two days and throughout the year,” Karolyi said. “She had no falls in any competitions that she presented this year. She had very good consistency.”

In San Jose, Hernandez was the top finisher both nights on beam, an apparatus that took down both Gabby Douglas and Biles during two nights of competition, and finished third on floor, fourth on vault and second in the all-around.

In the Olympics three-up, no-drop team competition format, Hernandez could compete as many as three events during and has a legitimate shot at being one of only two U.S. women who will contest the individual all-around.

Hernandez Places Third at the Pacific Rim Championships

It’s all golden for Laurie Hernandez

The 15-year-old Latina artistic gymnast, the reigning junior all-around national champion, placed third in the all-around competition at the Pacific Rim Championships to help lead the U.S. women to the team title.

Laurie Hernandez

The U.S. swept the top five spots. Simone Biles won the all-around title, Aly Raisman finished second. Brenna Dowell and Ragan Smith finished fourth and fifth respectively.

The U.S. won all four events en route to a team score of 243.200. Canada was second at 219.100, followed by Australia at 217.850.

Hernandez, who finished third at the City of Jesolo Trophy in Jesolo, Italy, last month, sat out Sunday’s individual finals to avoid any possible freak injury.

“The Olympic year is a long one,” said U.S. women’s team coordinator Martha Karolyi in a statement. “ … We are very proud of the entire team’s performance and want to make sure that we keep everyone in their optimal physical condition.”

Here’s a look at Hernandez’s performances:

Balance Beam

Floor Exercise

Vault