| Balance beam at the Olympic Games | |
|---|---|
 Nadia Comăneci competing on the balance beam at the 1976 Summer Olympics | |
| Overview | |
| Sport | Artistic gymnastics |
| Gender | Women |
| Years held | 1952 – 2024 |
| Reigning champion | |
| Women |  Alice D'Amato (ITA) |
The balance beam is an artistic gymnastics event held at the Summer Olympics on which only women compete. Women started competing in and earning medals at apparatus finals in 1952. [1]
| Rank | Gymnast | Nation | Olympics | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nadia Comăneci |  Romania (ROU) | 1976–1980 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 2 | Eva Bosáková |  Czechoslovakia (TCH) | 1956–1960 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Věra Čáslavská | Czechoslovakia (TCH) | 1964–1968 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| Olga Korbut |  Soviet Union (URS) | 1972–1976 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| Shannon Miller |  United States (USA) | 1992–1996 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| 6 | Tamara Manina | Soviet Union (URS) | 1956–1960 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 7 | Larisa Latynina | Soviet Union (URS) | 1960–1964 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 8 | Simone Biles | United States (USA) | 2016–2020 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Romania (ROU) | 6 | 0 | 4 | 10 |
| 2 | Soviet Union (URS) | 3 | 8 | 4 | 15 |
| 3 |  China (CHN) | 3 | 4 | 1 | 8 |
| 4 | United States (USA) | 2 | 4 | 5 | 11 |
| 5 | Czechoslovakia (TCH) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| 6 |  Hungary (HUN) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Italy (ITA) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| 8 |  Netherlands (NED) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
 Unified Team (EUN) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 10 |  Russia (RUS) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 11 |  Ukraine (UKR) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 |  East Germany (GDR) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
The balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus and an event performed using the apparatus. The apparatus and the event are sometimes simply called "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is BB. The balance beam is performed competitively only by female gymnasts.
Cătălina Ponor is a Romanian former artistic gymnast who competed at three Summer Olympic Games: 2004, 2012, and 2016. She won three gold medals at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens on balance beam, floor and as part of the Romanian team. She also earned a silver medal on floor and bronze medal as part of the Romanian team at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, as well as multiple World Championship and European Championship medals. She announced her plans to retire from gymnastics after the 2017 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, in Montreal. During her career, she won 23 Olympic, World and European medals. More than half of them (12) were gold medals. She was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2022.
Rebecca Lauren Downie is a British artistic gymnast who competed at the 2008, 2016, and 2024 Summer Olympics. She is a double European champion and 2014 Commonwealth Games champion on the uneven bars as well as the 2019 World silver medallist.
Lauren Stephanie Mitchell is an Australian former artistic gymnast. She is the 2010 World champion on the floor exercise and the 2009 World Championships silver medalist on the balance beam and floor exercise. Mitchell is only the second Australian female gymnast to win a medal at the World Championships, and she is the first to win a gold medal. She is the 2010 Commonwealth Games champion in the all-around, uneven bars, and balance beam, and with the Australian team, and she is the 2008 World Cup Final balance beam champion. She also represented Australia at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.
Kyla Briana Ross Rittman is a retired American artistic gymnast and current assistant coach for the Arkansas Razorbacks gymnastics team. She is the first female gymnast to win NCAA, World, and Olympic championship titles.
Aliya Farkhatovna Mustafina is a Russian former artistic gymnast.
Larisa Andreea Iordache is a Romanian former artistic gymnast. She represented Romania at the 2012 Olympic Games, winning a bronze medal with the team, and at the 2020 Olympic Games.
Elsabeth Ann Black is a Canadian artistic gymnast. She is a four-time Olympian, having represented her country at the 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024 Olympic games. She is the 2017 World all-around silver medallist, making her the first Canadian gymnast to win a world all-around medal, and she led the Canadian women's gymnastics team to a bronze medal in the 2022 World Championships team final, the first world team medal won by a Canadian gymnastics team. She won a silver medal on the balance beam at the 2022 World Championships. She is also the 2018 Commonwealth Games all-around champion, a two-time Pan American Games all-around champion, and a six-time Canadian national all-around champion. At the 2020 Olympic Games, Black placed fourth in the balance beam final, the highest placement in the Olympics for a female Canadian gymnast.
Simone Arianne Biles Owens is an American artistic gymnast. Her 11 Olympic medals and 30 World Championship medals make her the most decorated gymnast in history. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest gymnasts of all time and one of the greatest Olympians of all time. With 11 Olympic medals, she is tied with Věra Čáslavská as the second-most decorated female Olympic gymnast, and has the most Olympic medals earned by a U.S. gymnast.
Maria Aleksandrovna Kharenkova is a retired Russian-Georgian artistic gymnast. She is the 2014 European champion on the balance beam.
Rebeca Rodrigues de Andrade is a Brazilian artistic gymnast. Having won a total of six Olympic and nine World medals, she is the most decorated Brazilian and Latin American gymnast of all time, as well as the most decorated Brazilian Olympian in any discipline. In the all-around, she is the 2022 World champion, a two-time Olympic silver medalist, the 2023 World silver medalist, and the 2021 Pan American champion. On vault, she is the 2020 Olympic gold medalist, the 2024 Olympic silver medalist, a two-time World Champion, and the 2023 Pan American Games champion. In the floor exercise, she is the 2024 Olympic gold medalist, 2023 World silver medallist, and 2022 World bronze medallist. She led the Brazilian team to its first ever team medals at the 2023 World Championships (silver) and the 2024 Olympics (bronze), as well as the gold medal at the 2021 Pan American Championships.
Flávia Lopes Saraiva is a Brazilian artistic gymnast. She represented Brazil at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris where she won a bronze medal as part of the Brazilian team. She was also part of the teams that won silver at the 2023 World Championships, gold at the 2018 South American Games and bronze at the 2015 and 2019 Pan American Games. Individually she is the 2014 Summer Youth Olympic floor exercise champion, the 2023 World Championships floor exercise bronze medalist and is a multi-medalist at the Pan American Games, South American Games, and Pan American Championships.
Margaret Mary Nichols is an American former collegiate artistic gymnast. She was the ninth NCAA gymnast to complete a Gym Slam, the first to do so for Oklahoma, and the first NCAA gymnast to have achieved it twice.
Sanne Wevers is a Dutch artistic gymnast. She is the 2016 Olympic champion on the balance beam and was the first Dutch female gymnast to become an Olympic champion in an individual event. She is the 2018 and 2023 European champion on the balance beam. She is also the 2015 World and 2021 European silver medalist on the balance beam and the 2015 European bronze medalist on the uneven bars. She was a member of the Dutch team that won the bronze medal at the 2018 and 2023 European Championships.
Pauline Sieglinde Schäfer-Betz or Pauline Schäfer is a German artistic gymnast who represented Germany at the 2016, 2020, and 2024 Summer Olympics. She is the 2017 World Champion, the 2021 World silver medalist, and the 2015 World bronze medalist on the balance beam. She was part of the bronze medal-winning German team at the 2022 European Championships.
The women's balance beam event at the 2020 Summer Olympics was held on 25 July and 3 August 2021 at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre. Approximately 90 gymnasts from 53 nations are expected to compete on the balance beam in the qualifying round.
Kara Eaker is an American artistic gymnast. On the balance beam she is the 2018 Pan American and 2019 Pan American Games champion and a two-time United States national silver medalist. On floor exercise she is the 2019 Pan American Games silver medalist and the 2018 Pan American bronze medalist. She was a member of the American teams that won gold at the 2018 and 2019 World Championships, the 2019 Pan American Games, and the 2018 Pan American Championships. She was an alternate for the 2020 Olympic team.
The women's balance beam competition at the 1952 Summer Olympics was held at Messuhalli, Exhibition Hall II from 22 to 23 July, 1952. It was the first appearance of the event, though balance beam exercise were part of the women's team all-around events in 1936 and 1948.
Ondine Achampong is a British artistic gymnast who was part of the women's team that won silver at the 2022 World Championships. She won a gold medal with the English team at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and individually, Achampong won silver medals in the all-around and on floor exercise. She is the 2022 European team and balance beam silver medalist. She is the 2021 British all-around champion and the 2022 British all-around silver medalist.
Anastasia Maria Webb is an American former artistic gymnast. She competed for the Oklahoma Sooners women's gymnastics team. In 2021, she became the NCAA All Around Champion and tied for the floor and vault titles, to go along with OU's team championship from 2019.
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