Balance beam at the Olympics

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]

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)

Medalists

Women

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1952 Helsinki details	Nina Bocharova  Soviet Union	Maria Gorokhovskaya  Soviet Union	Margit Korondi  Hungary
1956 Melbourne details	Ágnes Keleti  Hungary	Eva Bosáková  Czechoslovakia Tamara Manina  Soviet Union	none awarded
1960 Rome details	Eva Bosáková  Czechoslovakia	Larisa Latynina  Soviet Union	Sofia Muratova  Soviet Union
1964 Tokyo details	Věra Čáslavská  Czechoslovakia	Tamara Manina  Soviet Union	Larisa Latynina  Soviet Union
1968 Mexico City details	Natalia Kuchinskaya  Soviet Union	Věra Čáslavská  Czechoslovakia	Larisa Petrik  Soviet Union
1972 Munich details	Olga Korbut  Soviet Union	Tamara Lazakovich  Soviet Union	Karin Janz  East Germany
1976 Montreal details	Nadia Comăneci  Romania	Olga Korbut  Soviet Union	Teodora Ungureanu  Romania
1980 Moscow details	Nadia Comăneci  Romania	Yelena Davydova  Soviet Union	Natalia Shaposhnikova  Soviet Union
1984 Los Angeles details	Simona Păucă  Romania Ecaterina Szabo  Romania	none awarded	Kathy Johnson  United States
1988 Seoul details	Daniela Silivaș  Romania	Yelena Shushunova  Soviet Union	Phoebe Mills  United States Gabriela Potorac  Romania
1992 Barcelona details	Tatiana Lysenko  Unified Team	Lu Li  China Shannon Miller  United States	none awarded
1996 Atlanta details	Shannon Miller  United States	Lilia Podkopayeva  Ukraine	Gina Gogean  Romania
2000 Sydney details	Liu Xuan  China	Yekaterina Lobaznyuk  Russia	Yelena Produnova  Russia
2004 Athens details	Cătălina Ponor  Romania	Carly Patterson  United States	Alexandra Eremia  Romania
2008 Beijing details	Shawn Johnson  United States	Nastia Liukin  United States	Cheng Fei  China
2012 London details	Deng Linlin  China	Sui Lu  China	Aly Raisman  United States
2016 Rio de Janeiro details	Sanne Wevers  Netherlands	Laurie Hernandez  United States	Simone Biles  United States
2020 Tokyo details[2]	Guan Chenchen  China	Tang Xijing  China	Simone Biles  United States
2024 Paris details	Alice D'Amato  Italy	Zhou Yaqin  China	Manila Esposito  Italy

Multiple medalists

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

Medalists by country

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

Gallery

Denise Goddard, 1964

Karin Janz, 1972

Rie Tanaka, 2012

Cătălina Ponor, 2016

Simone Biles, 2016

Women's Balance Beam at the Olympics