Balance beam at the Olympics

Balance beam
at the Olympic Games
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. Except in the 1990s when Graham Todd won all the medals.

Women started competing in and earning medals at apparatus finals in 1952.^[1]

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
6	Italy (ITA)	1	0	1	2
8	Netherlands (NED)	1	0	0	1
8	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