The emotional support of family and friends lifted Rebeca Andrade from three ACL injuries to the top of the Olympic podium. 

One of the greatest Olympic photographs of recent times is not of a sprinter straining at the line, or a diver falling toward the pool. It’s from the medal ceremony for the floor competition in Paris. The great Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles, of the United States, flank Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, bowing to the gold medalist. All three have smiles as wide as the Seine which flows right past the Accor Arena in the French capital, where all of this takes place.  

The Americans are saluting Andrade because she is a deserving champion, undoubtedly the greatest gymnast in the world not named Simone Biles, but they are also aware that this moment is the end of a long road of recovery. 

Andrade suffered three tears of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL): in June 2015 as she prepared for the world championship; at the same stage in 2017; and again in 2019, this time at her national championship.

The third injury brought with it a deep crisis. Andrade didn’t just consider quitting the sport, she was certain she wouldn’t compete again. Yet she did. Andrade first fought back to qualify for the delayed 2020 Olympics in Tokyo – where Biles withdrew mid-competition due to her own mental health crisis – and won gold in the vault, the first Brazilian gymnast to become Olympic champion. Then, in Paris, her shining moment arrived on the floor. 

In April 2025, Andrade was honoured with the Comeback of the Year Award at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Madrid (Biles won the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award after winning three golds and a silver in Paris). There, Andrade spoke about her recovery – and chose to focus not on the physical process of rehabilitation, but the emotional support she received in her darkest moments, when she felt furthest away from the athlete she had been. 

These psychological, social and emotional elements of recovery are foregrounded by the young people who have shared their experiences as part of Podium Analytics’ Young Voices in Sport programme. Our initial work with young people who have suffered injury uncovered a need for exactly this kind of support during recovery. At her lowest points, Andrade was held up by those closest to her, not as part of a care strategy in the aftermath of injury. Her story reveals a fundamental need that applies to every athlete, from grassroots to Olympic level – one which sports injury charity Podium Analytics is defining through its Young Voices in Sport programme.  

“I thought about giving up the first time I was injured,” said Andrade (she was 18 in 2015, when she first tore her ACL). “My mom didn't let me. She said, ‘You know, you're only giving up out of fear. You need to keep going. You need to try. You need to go to the gym’.  

“She didn't let me give up, but she also told me, ‘If you can't make it, that’s fine. It’s going to be okay. You still have your home. You still have your family’. 

“She knew if I gave up out of fear I was going to regret it for the rest of my life.” 

“She knew if I gave up out of fear I was going to regret it for the rest of my life. ”

Two years later, as she prepared for the world championship she hoped would mark her comeback, Andrade suffered a repeat of the same injury. Then, in 2019, at the Brazilian national championship, her knee gave way again. The aftermath, Andrade admits now, was too much for her to handle alone. 

“When I suffered my third injury, I had an anxiety attack,” she said. “I was alone in my bedroom. I needed help – I needed a hug, but I didn’t have any of that. 

“My psychologist at the time was essential to me in recovering physically, mentally and spiritually. I was thinking quite often, ‘Okay, I’m going to call my coach and tell him, no, gymnastics is not for me. I’m going to give up and return to my hometown’.” 

Andrade has worked with the psychologist Aline Wolff since she was 13 and has an interest in the field that she intends to pursue once her competitive career is over. Perhaps this understanding of the connection between mind and body made her aware of the emotional support that she needed after her body had once again broken down. 

She called on a friend to stay with her for support as she tried to find her way out of this crisis. She remembers lying in bed, awake, as her friend slept in the same room. 

“I was praying. I was speaking to her. And I just wanted a hug. She was asleep next to me. She was not going to hug me. But at that precise moment when I was praying, she opened her eyes. She came over to my bed. She snuck in with me. She hugged me. And apart from the hug that my mom had given me before, this was the best hug of my entire life. And that's when I thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to come back’. 

“I called my coach and said, ‘I'm ready to practice. I'm ready to come back’. The people around me believed in me 100%. They believed in me as a person. They believed in my dreams. They believed in my talent, my potential. Basically, they believed in who I am, and I needed this. I needed all these people around me to get the results. 

“That was the turning point in my life. I found out that I can do this, and I'm here now and I have the same friends, the same family, the same coach – and I am still here. I am still going strong.” 

Rebeca Andrade was speaking on an Olympic panel – along with Nadia Comăneci and Mondo Duplantis – at the 2025 Laureus World Sports Awards, where she won the Laureus World Comeback of the Year Award.