Rebeca Andrade's unique "Grey's Anatomy" strategy for preparing for her Olympics gymnastics routines

The Brazilian gymnast shares how she mentally gets in the zone before a floor exercise

Published August 7, 2024 2:01PM (EDT)

Brazil's Rebeca Andrade celebrates winning the gold medal at the end of the artistic gymnastics women's floor exercise final during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Bercy Arena in Paris, on August 5, 2024. (GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP via Getty Images)
Brazil's Rebeca Andrade celebrates winning the gold medal at the end of the artistic gymnastics women's floor exercise final during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Bercy Arena in Paris, on August 5, 2024. (GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP via Getty Images)

Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade and top Team USA opponent at the Paris Olympics shared a unique anecdote about one of the ways she prepares herself for competition. Andrade bested U.S. standout Simone Biles in the women's floor event, earning a score of 14.166 and the top podium position after claiming the silver medal in the women's all-around.

When asked this week what she does to pump herself up, Andrade shared that she tends to focus on food and television. “I was thinking about the recipes that I will make when I get back to Brazil," she said, according to NPR. “There was one that was with potatoes and cheese, chicken. There’s cake. There’s cookies. A lot of things.”

When it came to what she did before her golden floor routine, Andrade that she had a certain medical drama series on her mind. “Today, I wasn’t thinking about recipes because I watched a lot of TV shows [episodes] yesterday,” Andrade after her win. “So I dreamed of the show I was watching. I was watching: 'Grey’s Anatomy.' So I dreamed that I was a doctor, that I was operating and so on.” 

Andrade had previously won a gold medal in the vault event at the Tokyo Games in 2021 after Biles withdrew from the competition after being plagued with a bout of the "twisties."