Rebeca Andrade Triumphs Over Americans For Historic Vault World Title

She may not be full strength, but Rebeca Andrade at half-strength is good enough for gold. The Brazilian gymnast won gold in the women’s vault final at the 2026 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships on Oct. 24 over a pair of Americans.

Claire Pease won silver for her first individual world championship medal, and newly-crowned world all-around champion Skye Blakely claimed bronze, her second individual medal to go with her gold.

After winning four medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Andrade took the entirety of the 2025 competitive season off to recover. She returned to competition at the 2026 Pan American Championships in June where she won gold on vault and helped Brazil to silver in the team competition.

How Andrade Won Her Third Vault Title

In Rotterdam, Andrade vaulted two downgraded vaults from her Olympic routines, but won gold due to superior execution. The 2020 Olympic champion on vault average a stellar 9.3665 execution score across her two vaults, dwarfing the scores given to Pease and Blakely.

Though Pease competed the highest difficulty vault of the final, a “Cheng" – named after legendary Chinese gymnast Cheng Fei, she averaged 8.883 in execution. While Andrade won her previous titles with the “Cheng” vault, she relied on execution today, vaulting a lesser-rated Lopez vault.

With her gold medal, Andrade won her third world title on vault, tying Fei for the most in women’s gymnastics history. Already the most decorated Brazilian gymnast in history, the 27-year-old now owns 10 world championship medals.

Andrade is now tied with Věra Čáslavská and Alicia Sacramone with four world championship gold medals in the all-time records list.

Pease, Blakely Add to U.S. Medal Tally

17-year-old Claire Pease continued her strong world championship debut, winning silver behind Andrade for her first individual medal. Pease was stellar for the U.S. in the team final, leading them to silver behind a staggering 56+ all-around total.

The typically stoic teenager was overjoyed with the result. “I was really happy," she told NBC after the medal ceremony. "Getting an individual medal is amazing…and I was super happy it was on vault.”

She now has two silver medals, but could collect a third medal in Sunday’s floor exercise final.

While Pease’s American teammate Reese Esponda qualified in the top spot, Pease has posted the two highest floor scores in Rotterdam, setting up a battle for gold between the two Americans.

Just hours after winning the coveted all-around title, 21-year-old Skye Blakely collected her second individual medal of the championships and her first on an individual apparatus.

Blakely competed the same vaults as Andrade but received lower execution scores. She will also compete in Saturday’s uneven bars final and Sunday’s balance beam final, putting Blakely’s medal ceiling at five – the most of any athlete in Holland.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com