Brazil’s Olympic champion Andrade inspires girls at her hometown gym where career began | News World

GUARULHOS, Brazil (AP) — As she practiced her complex moves and somersaults, aspiring gymnast 14-year-old Manuela Kriegel kept gazing at one of the walls of the Bonifácio Cardoso gym outside the Brazilian metropolis of Sao Paulo.

It featured a painting of a national hero — Olympic champion and hometown favorite Rebeca Andrade — with two medals, a gold and a silver, that Andrade won at the Tokyo Games three years ago.

“This is outdated now,” Kriegel told The Associated Press on Tuesday after she finished her warm-up routines.

Outdated indeed. The 25-year-old Andrade won four more medals at the Paris Olympics, including gold in the floor exercise with a narrow victory over star U.S. gymnast Simone Biles. The Guarulhos native has become the most decorated Olympian in the history of the South American nation, with six medals.

Dozens of…