Judges’ Controversial Rebeca Andrade Decision Sparks Online Protests

The balance beam finals in the Olympics women’s gymnastics event stirred controversy Monday.

While United States Olympic stars Simone Biles and Suni Lee have been trending due to their costly dismount of the beam during their routines, many fans have drawn their attention toward Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade.

Andrade finished the individual balance beam final with a score of 13.933, notching an execution score of 8.233 and a difficulty score of 5.700.

Some fans believe Andrade should have at least reached the podium for her performance, given her steady routine, with one of the highest execution scores of the event.

“The scoring for event should be reviewed! The score for Rebeca Andrade is ridiculous. Unfair!” said one fan. 

“Unbelievable they stole rebeca from brazil! the one who fell came second,” said another fan. 

“That beam had banana peels on it. I also don’t know how Andrade didn’t medal since her and Alice were the only ones to not make mistakes,” commented another fan. 

The gold medal winner, Alice D’Amato, recorded a final score of 14.366 with an execution score of 8.566 and a difficulty score of 5.800.

Rebeca Andrade of Brazil competes on the beam during the Paris Olympics on Monday.

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Andrade has been widely considered one of the best women’s gymnastics competitors in the world, having earned three medals in the Paris Olympics prior to the balance beam event.

She previously won two silver medals in the artistic individual all-around and vault events at the Paris Games and a bronze medal in the artistic team all-around event.

Many fans believed she would be adding another medal on Monday, but Andrade had one of the lowest difficult scores of the top eight competitors.

“Are the judges blind??? What was that note from Rebeca?”

“JUSTICE FOR REBECA ANDRADE.”

Andrade bounced back in a big way later on Monday by winning gold in the floor exercise.