Jade Barbosa

Jade Fernandes Barbosa (born July 1, 1991) is a Brazilian artistic gymnast. She is a two-time individual bronze medalist at the World Championships, and represented Brazil at the 2008 and 2016 Summer Olympics. She was part of the silver medal-winning Brazilian team at the 2023 World Championships.

Gymnastics career
Barbosa was the Brazilian junior national champion in the all-around in 2006, and became a senior in 2007.

She has been a popular sports personality in Brazil since her first major appearance at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro. In December 2007, she was named Brazil's Sportswoman of the Year, an award given in previous years to gymnasts Laís Souza and Daiane dos Santos.

2007
Barbosa won her first medal in a senior international competition at the 2007 Cottbus World Cup in Germany, where she placed second on the vault.

At the 2007 Pan American Games, she placed fourth in the all-around after falling from the uneven bars and balance beam and going out of bounds on floor exercise. The following day, she competed in the vault finals, where she placed first with a score of 14.912, making her the only non-American woman to win a gold medal in gymnastics at the Games. She also won a bronze medal in the floor final, behind Americans Rebecca Bross and Shawn Johnson, and a silver with the Brazilian team.

At the 2007 World Championships, Barbosa tied with Vanessa Ferrari of Italy for the bronze medal in the women's all-around, scoring 15.9 on vault, 14.95 on bars, 15.7 on beam, and 14.0 on floor. She placed fifth in the vault finals, seventh in the beam finals, and fifth with the team, behind the United States, China, Romania, and Italy.

In October 2007, Barbosa took part in the World Cup event in Stuttgart, Germany, and won two silver medals, one on the vault and one on the floor. At the end of the year, she performed a Cheng vault—one of the most difficult vaults in the world, named after the Chinese Olympian Cheng Fei—in a Brazilian competition. Because she could also perform an Amanar, she became a contender for the Olympic vault title.

Also in 2007, Barbosa won the Brazilian senior national all-around title (defeating 2006 champion Daniele Hypólito), along with the national titles on vault and balance beam.

2008
Barbosa's first international competition in 2008 was the Cottbus World Cup. She won two silver medals there, one on vault and the other on floor.

In May 2008, Barbosa took part in the World Cup event in Moscow. During the vault finals, she was expected to perform an Amanar—a Yurchenko vault with 2.5 twists—but instead, she performed a double-twisting Yurchenko and a laid-out Podkopayeva. She won the gold medal, tied with Russian gymnast Anna Pavlova.

In June, Barbosa won the silver medal in the all-around at the Brazilian National Championships, behind Ana Claudia Silva and ahead of Hypólito. She also won gold medals on beam, vault and floor exercise. Later in the same month, Barbosa was the all-around champion at the Vitaly Scherbo International Gymnastics Cup, where Brazil also won a team gold medal.

At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Barbosa helped Brazil qualify to the team finals, where they placed eighth. Individually, she qualified to the all-around finals in eighth place and to the vault finals in seventh. She fell on floor and vault in the all-around final and finished tenth, followed by a seventh-place finish on vault.

2009–12
Barbosa had a serious injury after the Olympics and was unable to compete for some months. In 2009, she competed at Nationals and placed 1st on floor, beating Ethiene Franco and Priscila Cobello.

Her first major international competition after the Olympics was the 2010 World Championships, where she placed 15th in the all-around and third in the vault final, behind Alicia Sacramone and Aliya Mustafina. The following year, she placed fourth on vault at the 2011 World Championships after twisting her ankle on her second vault. Brazil placed 14th in the team competition, which was not enough to qualify a full team to the 2012 Olympics.

At the 2012 Olympic Test Event, however, Brazil had a second opportunity to qualify to the Olympics, and was successful. Barbosa also won an individual gold medal on vault at the Test Event. She was not selected for the 2012 Summer Olympics because of a contract dispute with the Brazilian federation. Barbosa struggled with injuries and returned to gymnastics in June 2015 after undergoing surgery on her right knee.

2016
Barbosa qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics through the test event held in April. She contributed an overall score of 55.823 toward the Brazil team's first-place finish.

In qualifications on 7 August, Barbosa finished in 23rd place with an overall score of 56.499, behind teammates Rebeca Andrade and Flávia Saraiva. In the team final on 9 August, she contributed scores of 14.933 on vault, 14.391 on uneven bars, 13.033 on balance beam and 14.266 on floor toward the team's eighth-place finish.

Barbosa was substituted in for teammate Flávia Saraiva by the Brazilian federation for the all-around final on 11 August, reportedly so that Saraiva could concentrate on preparing for the balance beam final. Barbosa scored 13.700 on balance beam, but she suffered an injury while performing her floor routine and had to withdraw. As a result, she did not finish.

2017
Barbosa spent early 2017 competing on the inaugural season of Dancing Brasil, where she was partnered with Lucas Teodoro. They ended up finishing second in the competition behind actress Maytê Piragibe. In August Barbosa returned to competition at the Brazilian Championships where she placed fourth in the all-around qualifications but withdrew from the final due to injury, later revealed to be a stress fracture in her shin. She placed second on uneven bars. She spent the remainder of the season recovering.

2018
Barbosa returned to competition at the City of Jesolo Trophy where she helped Brazil finish second behind Russia and individually she placed sixth in the all-around and on uneven bars and placed fourth on balance beam. In May Barbosa competed at the South American Games where she helped Brazil win team gold. Individually she won bronze in the all-around behind Martina Dominici of Argentina and compatriot Flávia Saraiva. She additionally won silver on uneven bars and balance beam, once again behind Saraiva. At the Brazilian Championships Barbosa won silver behind Daniele Hypólito and at the event championships she won gold on uneven bars and silver on balance beam, behind Saraiva. In September Barbosa competed at the Pan American Championships where she helped Brazil win the team silver behind the United States. Individually she placed seventh in the all-around and on uneven bars and sixth on floor exercise. At the World Championships in October, Barbosa helped Brazil qualify to the team final for the first time since the 2007 World Championships, Barbosa's first year as a senior elite. Brazil ended up finishing in seventh place. Individually Barbosa finished fifteenth in the all-around.

In November Barbosa competed at the Arthur Gander Memorial in Chiasso, Switzerland where she placed first in the three-event all-around, ahead of Saraiva and Eythora Thorsdottir of the Netherlands. A few days later Barbosa competed at the Swiss Cup where she was partnered with Canadian gymnast Cory Paterson to form the Pan American team. They won bronze behind the German team of Marcel Nguyen and Elisabeth Seitz and the Russian team of Angelina Melnikova and Nikita Nagornyy. The following week she competed at the Cottbus World Cup where she won silver on floor exercise behind compatriot Saraiva and placed seventh on vault.

2019
In March Barbosa competed at the DTB Team Challenge in Stuttgart, Germany where she helped Brazil win the team gold, ahead of second place Russia. In June she competed at the Brazilian National Championships where she placed third in the all-around behind Thais Fidelis and Flávia Saraiva. She additionally won silver on floor exercise and bronze on uneven bars.

In July Barbosa was slated to compete at the 2019 Pan American Games. While there she sustained a minor injury and sat out the competition but still won the bronze medal alongside her team in the team final due to Brazil not replacing her with an alternate.

In October Barbosa competed at the World Championships. During qualifications she injured her knee on the vault and was unable to finish the competition. This injury followed Rebeca Andrade's ACL injury earlier in the year and Carolyne Pedro's injury right before qualifications. As a result, Brazil finished 14th in qualifications and did not qualify to the team final nor did they qualify a team to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. The following month Barbosa underwent surgery on her ACL, but doubted she would be recovered in time to qualify for the Olympics via the World Cup series or the 2020 Pan American Gymnastics Championships.

2020–23
Barbosa spent the next few years recovering from injuries and other setbacks. She competed at various domestic competitions in 2021 and 2022 but was limited to uneven bars and balance beam. In August 2023 Barbosa made her all-around comeback at that year's national championships. After the two-day competition Barbosa placed first in the all-around, a feat she last achieved in 2007. Additionally she placed first on floor exercise and third on uneven bars behind Rebeca Andrade and Lorrane Oliveira. Barbosa next competed at the 2023 Paris World Challenge Cup, where she took the silver medal in the floor exercise final behind Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos. In October 2023, Barbosa competed at the World Championships along with teammates Rebeca Andrade, Lorrane Oliveira, Flávia Saraiva and Júlia Soares. The team took the silver medal behind the United States — Brazil's first team medal in World Championship history. Later that month, Barbosa competed at the Pan American Games, where the Brazilian team once again took silver behind the United States. Individually, Barbosa finished fourth in the all-around final.

Life outside gymnastics
Barbosa has become a very popular sports personality in Brazil since her first major appearance at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro. She has developed a big fanbase among young girls and teenagers in Brazil. In December 2007 Barbosa was elected Brazil's Sportswoman of the year, an award also given in previous years to gymnasts Laís Souza and Daiane dos Santos.

2006–08 Code of Points

 * Vault: 15.95 (team qualifications, 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships)
 * Bars: 15.25 (team qualifications, 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships)
 * Beam: 15.7 (all-around final, 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships)
 * Floor: 15.325 (team qualifications, 2007 Pan American Games)

2009–12 Code of Points

 * Vault: 14.966 (vault final, 2012 Gymnastics Olympic Test Event)
 * Bars: 13.650 (team final, 2011 Brazilian Nationals)
 * Beam: 14.800 (team final, 2011 Brazilian Nationals)
 * Floor: 14.000 (all-around final, 2011 Brazil Trophy)