These may be Simone Biles’s Olympics but this is Flavia Saraiva’s city. The pixie Brazilian had the home crowd eating out of her tiny hand on Tuesday despite watching the Games host place last in the women’s gymnastics team final.

Biles led the United States to the team title, claiming the first of what could be five gold medals, but the 16-year-old Saraiva won over the fans with a playful, yet all-business, performance.

“I loved the audience here – it helped us a lot during competition,” said Saraiva, standing on her tip toes stretching to get her head above the barriers.

“Even where there were some errors out there, they helped us overcome that. I heard everyone cheering us on.

“We got through at number five in the qualifying and today we were eighth, but hey we were among the top eight and that’s what makes me happy.”

Packing 70 lbs (32 kg) of pure charisma into a muscular 4-foot, 4-inch (1.32m) frame, the pint-sized Saraiva even has to look up to the diminutive 4-foot, 9-inch (1.45m) Biles, but stood tall against the world’s best on balance beam and floor exercise.

On the floor routine, Saraiva enchanted the home crowd with an energetic effort that had the audience clapping along as she entered her final tumbling run and erupting in a mighty roar when she nailed her landing and walked off with a cheeky smile and wave.

“I really wasn’t nervous out there,” smiled the bubbly Brazilian, hauling around a backpack nearly as big as her. “Our team is very united, so it’s a really good feeling to get out there.”

Brazil has not seen the last of Saraiva just yet either.

She’s the only member of the Brazilian team to qualify for a spot on the apparatus finals after placing third on the balance beam behind Americans Biles and Lauren Hernandez.