Artistic gymnastics came to the limelight once again during the 2024 Paris Olympics. With crowded arenas and huge spectator ratings, the beautiful sport was particularly noteworthy for the Brazilian women's artistic gymnastics team—Jade Magalhães, Flavia Saraiva, Julia Soares, Lorrane Oliveira, and Rebeca Andrade—which has won an unprecedented bronze medal in the team category. Despite the collective success, Rebeca´s individual performance, worthy of two silvers and one gold medal, was the standout of the competition.

In a country that lacks quality infrastructure and public investment in sports, Rebeca Andrade—with her two silvers and one gold medal—and the Brazilian team have risen as living proof that effort, determination, and endurance can win you an Olympic medal, or multiple. To understand where the Olympic success comes from, it is interesting to comprehend the journey many gymnasts in Brazil have taken from a very young age. Behind all of the technique, gentleness, and skill brought by the world of artistic gymnastics, there is an environment that is not as pleasant to take part in as it is to watch the sport.

Researcher Vitor Ricci Costa, from the University of Campinas Faculty of Physical Education (FEF-Unicamp), in his article “Living within and outside a disciplinary bubble: a Foucauldian analysis of Brazilian gymnasts’ experiences in boarding school”, points out some of the challenges the young female gymnasts had to face in Brazil. The research was carried out alongside eight former Olympic-level gymnasts who, between 2001 and 2005, attended a training center aimed at high performance sports and operated on a boarding school basis. The project has come to find problems of over-training and authoritarian power relations, with long-term impacts in the gymnasts professional and personal lives.

From restrictive diets to months without seeing their families, girls from only 5 to 7 years old, had to make countless sacrifices to pursue the dream of achieving professional status. Having weight as an important factor for performance in the sport, many of them suffered from problems such as bulimia and anorexia, which ultimately affected their performance. Not going to a proper school and having to obey curfews can also play a huge negative part in the development of the athlete.

When it came to infrastructure availability, the training center used by Costa´s research did have a good, overall availability of facilities, along with a specialized team of professionals—coaches, nutritionists, physiotherapists, teachers, and doctors—which followed the development of the young gymnasts. The main problem noted by the researcher is the lack of commitment and compromise from the professionals with the young athletes. This sort of conduct turns evident in one of the speeches made by a gymnast during the interviews conducted in the research: “They showed on TV that the Brazilian squad had a wonderful center with a multidisciplinary team. OK. We had a doctor, nutritionist, physiotherapist, and teachers. But they only responded to the commands of managers and coaches. They didn't really care about us. For example, we didn't have classes, the teachers came to the center to tell jokes to try to cheer us up. I left the center feeling more stupid than when I entered. The managers told the audience on TV that they provided all the conditions. I think many gymnasts believed it. The staff at the center taught them to believe in this fairy tale.”

The research conducted by Costa is proof that the field of gymnastics has been in need of change for a long time. It also showcases how the problem is deeply rooted in Brazilian sports culture, originated from the disciplinary nature of physical education, which is directly linked to military dictatorship (1964–1985). A training center created with the aim of raising young Brazilian gymnasts to professional excellence and international recognition, where everything was meticulously controlled, has been proven to be the wrong method for producing high performance athletes, or even better, to raise human beings.

A great alternative is through public policies, which use the sport as a vehicle to not only develop physical attributes related to skill but also to build social character in young aspiring athletes. A good example is the project “Sport, leisure, and citizenship, "conducted in the east zone of Porto Velho, in the state of Rondônia. With a focus on developing the social skills of the participants through artistic gymnastics, the project had the participation of 8 children aged between 5 and 12 years. Through an array of different activities, followed by professional mentoring and supervision from coordinators, activities were carried out aimed at improving the repertoire of social skills, through specific dynamics, addressing aspects such as playful mechanisms and the fundamentals of artistic gymnastics. The children also pointed out that the development of social skills, as part of the project, led to notable changes in their lives. Some showed greater tolerance in the face of adversity and more assertive behavior in conversation circles. The project is proof that even with some limitations, it is possible to make good use of different activities to develop the sport of artistic gymnastics and the social formation of young athletes.

It is with projects of this sort, followed by good references in the sport, that the transformative power of sport becomes evident. Following Brazil's success at the Paris Olympics, the José Bonifácio Cardoso Gymnasium in Guarulhos, known for being Rebeca Andrade´s "birthplace," saw a surprising increase in enrolments, with a record of more than 400 applications just a few days after the competition came to an end.

Alongside Diego Hypólito, Daiane do Santos, and many other great Brazilian gymnasts, Rebeca is a great example of someone who has been using their platform and success to contribute to the growth of the sport and ultimately to social development. At only 25 years old, Rebeca has achieved the peak of a gymnast's career, winning at every level (Olympic Games, World Championships, Pan American Games and Championships). During an interview for Rede Globo, the young gymnast with the most Olympic medals ever for her country said it herself: “I know how much we need references and people to make us keep believing." Well, Rebeca, for us fellow Brazilians, and arguably for the whole world and for the children who will now start discovering the world of gymnastics, it is safe to say that you are now one of those figures. Here is a thank you from someone that you have inspired.