At the beginning of June, Rebeca Andrade did not know if she would even qualify for the Olympic Games. On Thursday, the 22-year-old gymnast won the silver medal in the all-around, making her the first Brazilian to win any Olympic medal in women’s gymnastics and also the first woman to win an all-around medal for a country that did not qualify a full team for the Games. And she did so after tearing a ligament in her knee twice in five years.
One of the injuries kept her out of the 2019 world championships, Brazil’s last chance to qualify a full team for the Tokyo Games and Andrade’s best chance to qualify as an individual.