Andrade had the crowd at the Bercy Arena on its feet with her lively routine, setting an early mark as the second gymnast to go in the floor final.
Biles, who was frustrated with the crowd during the beam final, seemed to have shaken off her disappointment and made a brilliant start on floor with a powerful and perfectly landed triple twisting double somersault.
But such is the height and power she gets on her tumbles it can sometimes work against her. She landed with both feet outside the floor area twice, costing her 0.300 apiece, and scored 14.133 to sit 0.033 behind Andrade.
Usually, Biles’ difficulty level – which was a full mark higher than Andrade’s – can get her out of trouble if she has a messy landing – but these were too bad. One foot out of the area would only have been a 0.100 deduction.
Add into the mix that Andrade, 25, executed her routine almost flawlessly, there is no doubt that this was a well deserved gold for the Brazilian – a fact underlined by Biles and bronze medallist Jordan Chiles bowing to her on the podium.
“First, it was an all-black podium so that was super exciting for us but then Jordan was like ‘should we bow to her?’ and I was like ‘absolutely’,” Biles said. “She’s such an excitement to watch. It was just the right thing to do.”
After beating Andrade to the all-around title last week, Biles had praised her rival saying she was the only gymnast who had ever come close to her.
She was right, although this time she was beaten as Andrade completed her set of a medal of every colour in Paris after all-around silver and team bronze.
With her 11th Olympic gymnastics medal, Biles has drawn level with Czech Vera Caslavska in second on the women’s all-time list. The all-time leader is Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina with 18.
