Brazil women’s team win gold in Pan Am Gymnastics

Brazil’s women gymnasts showed an outstanding performance last week in the Pan American Artistic Gymnastics Championships, in Rio de Janeiro. This Sunday (Jul 17), their prowess went down in history. For the first time ever, the Latin American giant overcame one of the world’s great powers in the sport, the US, in a team event, and bagged gold.

The unprecedented feat was the icing on the cake of the team’s week: on Friday (15) the Brazilians had already achieved the best total score among all countries in the individual competitions, securing a spot in the World Championships of the sport, to be held in Liverpool in October.

The big stars on the Brazilian team were the same ones who bagged three golds and two silvers on Friday—Flávia Saraiva and Rebeca Andrade. The two were accompanied by Carolyne Pedro, Júlia Soares, Lorrane Oliveira, and Christal Bezerra (bench). In all, Brazil scored 162,999, compared to 161 thousand points for the US, which took silver, and 155,534 for Canada, bronze.

This is the second time in a row the women got team gold in the Pan American Championships. In 2021, however, when the competition was also held in Rio, the US did not participate, as they had already qualified for the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Men’s silver medal

Late Sunday afternoon (17), Brazil also shone in the men’s team and got silver. Here, the Brazilians were second only to the US.

In the dispute that ended the Pan American Gymnastics Championships, the men won silver by teams. Comprised by Arthur Zanetti, Arthur Nory, Caio Souza, Diogo Soares, and Lucas Bitencourt, the Brazilian team scored 244,234 points, behind the US (gold with 245,698) and ahead of Canada (bronze with 240,034). The outcome means Brazil has boasted the best performance among all nations, with seven golds and a total 14 medals, in addition to its qualification for the World Championships in Liverpool.