Artistic gymnastics: Women’s team secure place at Paris Games

Rebeca Andrade, Flávia Saraiva, Jade Barbosa, Lorrane Oliveira, and Júlia Soares have clinched a spot in the artistic gymnastics team competition for the upcoming 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The qualification was secured last Monday (Oct. 2) during the World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium.

In the competition, the Brazilians scored 164.297 and secured fourth place in the qualifiers, behind the US, the UK, and Canada.

“I admit that, when I did my parallel series, I wasn’t totally satisfied, even though it’s my favorite apparatus. But what makes me most proud is that I didn’t give up. I could have got off the parallel and thought about a lot of things, but no. I worked hard to get to the end because our goal here was to qualify for Paris,” said Rebeca Andrade.

The Brazilian coach, Iryna Ilyashenko, praised the fighting spirit of the Brazilian gymnasts: “The girls fought until the last apparatus and we reached our main goal. And now there’s more to come: We’ll have the team final, individual all-around, and apparatus finals. Step by step, Brazilian gymnastics is winning its place.”