Brazil’s Olympic champion Rebeca Andrade inspires girls at her hometown gym where career began

Olympic champion Rebeca Andrade inspires girls at the hometown gym where her career began after becoming the most decorated Olympian in Brazil's history.

As she practiced her complex moves and somersaults, aspiring gymnast 14-year-old Manuela Kriegel kept gazing at one of the walls of the Bonifácio Cardoso gym outside the Brazilian metropolis of Sao Paulo.

It featured a painting of a national hero — Olympic champion and hometown favorite Rebeca Andrade — with two medals, a gold and a silver, that Andrade won at the Tokyo Games three years ago.

“This is outdated now,” Kriegel told The Associated Press on Tuesday after she finished her warm-up routines.

Outdated indeed. The 25-year-old Andrade won four more medals at the Paris Olympics, including gold in the floor exercise with a narrow victory over star U.S. gymnast Simone Biles. The Guarulhos native has become the most decorated Olympian in the history of the South American nation, with six medals.

Dozens of girls lined up with their parents in the early hours of Tuesday at the public gymnasium where Andrade started her career 15 years ago. Some of those hopeful athletes in Guarulhos train there every day.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/brazil-olympic-gymnast-andrade-hometown-rcna165519

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