The women's

balance beam The balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus and an event performed using the apparatus. Both the apparatus and the event are sometimes simply referred to as "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring i ...

event at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

was held on 25 July and 3 August 2021 at the

Ariake Gymnastics Centre The Ariake Gymnastics Centre is a temporary sports arena located in the Ariake, Tokyo, Ariake district of Tokyo, Japan. Opened in October 2019, the venue was constructed to host the Gymnastics at the 2020 Summer Olympics, gymnastics events at the ...

. Approximately 90 gymnasts from 53 nations (of the 98 total gymnasts) are expected to compete on the balance beam in the qualifying round.

Guan Chenchen Guan Chenchen ( zh, c=管晨辰, p=Guǎn Chén Chén; born September 25, 2004) is a Chinese former artistic gymnast. She is the 2020 Olympic champion and the 2020 Chinese champion on the balance beam. On the junior level, she was a member of ...

and

Tang Xijing Tang Xijing (; born January 3, 2003) is a Chinese artistic gymnast. She is the 2019 World all-around silver medalist, matching Jiang Yuyuan at the 2010 World Championships for the highest all-around finish for a Chinese woman in World or Oly ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

won the gold and silver medals, respectively, both earning their first Olympic medals.

Simone Biles Simone Arianne Biles (; born March 14, 1997) is an American artistic gymnast. Her seven Olympic medals tied with Shannon Miller for the most Olympic medals won by an American gymnast. Having won 25 World Championship medals, she is the most de ...

of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, performing a scaled-down routine, repeated her bronze medal performance from 2016 for her seventh Olympic medal. Biles' 32 combined World and Olympic medals tied her with

Larisa Latynina Larisa Semyonovna Latynina (russian: link=yes, Лариса Семёновна Латынина, née Diriy, Дирий; born 27 December 1934) is a former Soviet artistic gymnast. Between 1956 and 1964 she won 14 individual Olympic medals and ...

of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

as the most decorated female gymnasts of all time. It was Biles' only finals appearance after a week where she withdrew from all other events due to mental health concerns. The defending champion,

Sanne Wevers Sanne Wevers (born 17 September 1991) is a Dutch artistic gymnast. She is the 2016 Olympic and 2018 European champion on the balance beam and was the first Dutch female gymnast to become an Olympic champion on an individual event. She is also ...

, did not qualify for the event. The medals for the competition were presented by Anita L. Defrantz,

; IOC Vice-President, and the medalists' bouquets were presented by Vasily Titov,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

; FIG Vice-President.

Background

This was the 19th appearance of the event, after making its debut at the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

. Defending champion

of the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

did not qualify to the final; she was instead the third reserve.

of the

, the defending bronze medalist, made her only finals appearance of the Olympics following withdrawals from the team final, the individual all-around final, the vault, uneven bars, and floor event finals due to mental health concerns.

Qualification

National Olympic Committee A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games ...

(NOC) could enter up to 6 qualified gymnasts: a team of 4 and up to 2 specialists. A total of 98 quota places are allocated to women's gymnastics. The 12 teams that qualify will be able to send 4 gymnasts in the team competition, for a total of 48 of the 98 quota places. The top three teams at the

2018 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2018 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships was the 48th edition of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships. The competition was held from October 25 – November 3, 2018, at the Aspire Academy Dome in Doha, Qatar. It was the first tim ...

(the United States, Russia, and China) and the top nine teams (excluding those already qualified) at the

2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships was held in Stuttgart, Germany from October 4–13, 2019. The championships took place at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle, and was the third time the city of Stuttgart hosted the event following the ...

(France, Canada, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Japan, and Spain) earned team qualification places. The remaining 50 quota places are awarded individually. Each gymnast can only earn one place, except that gymnasts that competed with a team that qualified are eligible to earn a second place through the 2020 All Around World Cup Series. Some of the individual events are open to gymnasts from NOCs with qualified teams, while others are not. These places are filled through various criteria based on the 2019 World Championships, the 2020 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup series, continental championships, a host guarantee, and a Tripartite Commission invitation. Each of the 98 qualified gymnasts are eligible for the balance beam competition, but many gymnasts do not compete in each of the apparatus events. The

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

delayed many of the events for qualifying for gymnastics. The 2018 and 2019 World Championships were completed on time, but many of the World Cup series events were delayed into 2021.

Competition format

The top 8 qualifiers in the qualification phase (limit two per NOC) advance to the apparatus final. The finalists performed on the balance beam again. Qualification scores were then ignored, with only final round scores counting.

Schedule

The competition will be held over two days, 25 July and 3 August. The qualifying round (for all women's gymnastics events) was the first day; the balance beam final is on the third and final day of individual event finals.

Results

Qualifying

; Reserves The reserves for the women's balance beam final were: # – ''called up after

Larisa Iordache Larisa Andreea Iordache (; born 19 June 1996) is a former Romanians, Romanian Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast. She represented Romania at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Romania at the 2012 Olympic Games, winning a bronze medal with the team, a ...

's withdrawal'' # # Only two gymnasts from each country may advance to the event final. Gymnasts who did not qualify for the final because of the quota, but had high enough scores to do so were: *

Final

Oldest and youngest competitors Fourth- and fifth-place finishers

Ellie Black Elsabeth Ann "Ellie" Black (born September 8, 1995) is a Canadian artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast. She is a three-time Olympian, having represented her country at the Gymnastics at the 2012 Summer Olympics, 2012, Gymnastics at the 2016 S ...

and

Sunisa Lee Sunisa "Suni" Lee (born Sunisa Phabsomphou; March 9, 2003) is a Hmong American artistic gymnast. She is the 2020 Olympic all-around champion and uneven bars bronze medalist. She was a member of the teams that won gold at the 2019 World Champio ...

, respectively, finished with identical scores of 13.866. According the FIG's tie-breaking procedure, Black earned the higher placement due to higher E-score (7.666 vs 7.466).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gymnastics at the 2020 Summer Olympics - Women's balance beam Women's balance beam

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

Women's events at the 2020 Summer Olympics