Simone Biles won her third consecutive gymnastics world championship on Sunday, taking home the bronze medal. The American gymnast is now tied with Nadia Comaneci for most world championships in the sport’s history.
Simone Biles won the bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She is an American gymnast who is considered one of the best in history, and she has been awarded many honors including 4 gold medals and 1 silver.
Tokyo time is 6:42 p.m. on August 3rd.
Important Updates:
3:36 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:36 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Guan Chenchen of China is the last participant, and he earned by far the best score in the qualifying round.
3:32 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:32 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
On beam, I believe Vladislava Urazova failed one of the four composition requirements: an acrobatic sequence with at least one salto, which translates to a flip. She typically does two back handsprings into a back layout stepout, but today she performed three. If a composition criterion is not met, the difficulty score is reduced by 0.5.
3:27 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:27 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Urara Ashikawa of Japan, who qualified for the final when Larisa Iordache withdrew at the last minute, suffers a significant balance check on her switch ring jump but ends with a tough triple-twisting dismount. She comes in fifth position with a score of 13.733.
3:22 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:22 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Simone Biles leaps during the final of the balancing beam, her last event at the Tokyo Olympics. Credit: The New York Times/Doug Mills On the balance beam, Biles flips. She had pulled out of the team event previous week, so beam was her first time back on the competition floor. Credit: The New York Times/Doug Mills Credit… The New York Times/Chang W. Lee Credit: The New York Times/Chang W. Lee Credit: The New York Times/Doug Mills
Credit: The New York Times/Chang W. Lee Credit: The New York Times/Doug Mills
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5:20 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
5:20 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Sunisa Lee had a big wobble on her side aerial, layout stepout, layout stepout, but she managed to remain on the beam somehow — I’m not sure how. A amazing save, but nonetheless a significant flaw in an otherwise flawless performance. She receives a score of 13.866.
3:22 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:22 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Lee is in fourth place with her score. She won’t be on the podium today, but she still has three medals from the Olympics, including the most important of all: the all-around gold.
3:19 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:19 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Credit: The New York Times/Chang W. Lee
Simone Biles waved to a chorus of applause as her name was called for the balance beam final on Tuesday, with the stands at one end of the Ariake Gymnastics Center almost full. There haven’t been as many spectators in the grandstand for any other gymnastics event at the Tokyo Olympics. They had come to watch Biles compete in what might have been her last competition as a top gymnast.
Biles dismounted with backhand springs, flips, split jumps, and a double back flip in the pike position after missing several competitions due to a mental health problem. There were a couple shaky moments, but generally, it was a decent routine for someone who is dealing with so much stress during the Games. The twists from her tough and complex dismount, which was named after her, were no longer there. But she smiled as she completed her routine, slapping her chest and sprinting to embrace her instructor, Cecile Landi.
She nodded in agreement as her score appeared on the scoreboard. It was a 14.0, far below her normal mark, but the greatest part was that she was done, according to the routine on her face.
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3:16 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:16 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Simone Biles performed well on the balance beam. Because she dismounted easier, her difficulty score will be four tenths lower than in the qualifying round, but she couldn’t have done any better. After everything she’s been through in the last week, this is really remarkable.
3:16 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:16 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Biles seems to have made one link incorrectly, but I’m not sure it matters. What amazing achievement.
5:10 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
5:10 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Simone Biles walks up to the balance beam, wipes it off a little, then stands to the side and waits for Tang Xijing’s score.
3:03 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:03 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Ellie Black of Canada is up first on beam, competing after missing the all-around final due to an ankle injury.
3:07 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:07 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Black experienced a few minor balance issues, but she completed her routine, which included a very difficult full-twisting back tuck. As she steps down from the stage, she sobs and embraces her coach.
3:58 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:58 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Ferhat Arican of Turkey is ecstatic with his bronze medal in parallel bars, swinging it around and presenting it to the camera. Perhaps if everyone celebrated their silvers and bronzes in the same way, supporters would do the same.
3:58 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:58 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
The announcer at the stadium urges everyone to “follow social distancing norms at all times.” Hmm, it must be difficult for those who crowd the stands above the balancing beam. I see Thomas Bach, the IOC president, there, dressed strangely casually in a short-sleeved golf shirt.
Credit: The New York Times/Chang W. Lee
3:44 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:44 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
In a few minutes, we’ll switch our focus from the parallel bars to the balancing beam. Larisa Iordache of Romania posted a sad message a few minutes ago, referring to her mother, who died four weeks before the Games started, after withdrawing from the final at the last minute due to an ankle ailment.
For this Olympic final, I tried and hoped until the very last minute. Unfortunately, my path has been hardened once again… this agony in my ankle that I feel is beyond my human limit. (1/3)
August 3, 2021 — Larisa Iordache (@Larisa Iordache)
5:10 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
5:10 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Iordache writes, “I tried and prayed until the last minute for this Olympic final.” “I wanted to do it for myself and for [the] person who drove me along this path, who is sadly no longer next to me and from whom I can no longer get encouragement.”
3:35 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:35 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Iordache, who finished half a point behind Simone Biles in the all-around at the 2014 world championships, was injured shortly before the 2012 Olympics, the 2016 Olympics, and the 2017 world championships. “The sense of proving to myself that I am greater than I believe has never faded in my soul,” she said last month when I asked her how she remained motivated through it all. As a result, I couldn’t let my thoughts consume me, and I got up every time.”
3:38 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:38 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
There are certainly more spectators in the grandstand here at the Ariake Gymnastics Center than at any other event so far. Many of them have gathered in the stands above the balancing beam, which is strange. Based on the credentials around their necks, several of them seem to be from NBC. I’m curious as to what they’ve come to see.
3:35 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:35 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Lukas Dauser has ascended to the top of the parallel bars and is celebrating his silver medal by standing with one foot on each bar. As his supporters in the stadium applaud, he has unfurled a German flag and is hoisting it behind him. Who says that winning silver is a letdown? This man is ecstatic!
Credit: The New York Times/Chang W. Lee
3:34 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:34 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Lukas Dauser of Germany wins the silver medal after a strong performance in the final. As a result, Zou Jingyuan will win gold, while Ferhat Arican will take bronze for Turkey. In artistic gymnastics, males participate in six events: floor exercise, pommel horse, rings vault, parallel bars, and high bar; women compete in just four. As a result, in every gymnastics competition, the males always win six more medals than the women.
3:29 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:29 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Organizers are adding the sound of a beating heart to the men’s competition to add drama while the competitors wait for their results. That’s a snide remark.
3:31 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:31 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Even if you aren’t competing, it makes you anxious!
3:25 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:25 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
In his parallel bars performance, Ukraine’s Petro Pakhniuk had a lengthy break as he battled to maintain his balance in a handstand on one rail. That will prevent him from winning any medals.
3:24 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:24 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
The Bhavsar, according to Gymcastic’s Kensley Behel, is a talent to keep an eye on. We’ve already seen it a couple times. It was named after American gymnast Raj Bhavsar, who claimed he came up with the idea after thinking “if I could perform a high-bar-style release move on parallel bars.” The gymnast begins in a handstand on one end of the bar, swings down through the bars, soars up into a straddle, catches the bar, and swings down again. It extends the length of the bars. It may be found here.
3:20 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:20 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Zou Jingyuan’s 16.233 was the best gymnastics score we’d seen in Tokyo. It’ll be difficult to top that. Sam Mikulak, an American, received a 15, which was lower than his qualifying score. That will prevent him from winning any medals.
3:18 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:18 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
In his quest for a medal on the parallel bars, You Hao of China fell extremely low on his dismount.
3:20 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:20 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
You climb up to third place, putting Mikulak out of contention for a medal, but his own situation is fragile with many gymnasts still competing.
3:12 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:12 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Sam Mikulak is in contention for a medal after a strong performance. Last week, he finished 12th in the all-around final. Notably, he, like Simone Biles and hundreds of other gymnasts, has spoken out about mental health in the sport. “For so long in my gym career, I’ve been overwhelmed,” he said on Instagram in May. I’ve been so obsessed with fear of not achieving my objectives that it’s gotten in the way of what truly makes a person successful. Happiness.”
3:08 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:08 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
China’s Zou Jingyuan has risen to the top. In the qualifying, he scored almost a 9.4 for his performance. “He had a fairly terrible landing in qualifications, so you could see it move up to 9.5, 9.6,” Kensley Behel of the podcast Gymcastic told me. On this occasion, he’s nearly flawless.”
Credit: The New York Times/Doug Mills
3:06 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:06 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Turkey’s Ferhat Arican came close to losing his balance on a handstand but managed to remain on the bars. Small errors like this may decide the medals here, but he seems to be pleased with his effort, pumping his hands.
3:03 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:03 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
The final of parallel bars is about to begin. China’s Zou Jingyuan is the overwhelming favorite for gold, but the rest of the podium is a fascinating battle. Lukas Dauser of Germany, You Hao of China, Ferhat Arican of Turkey, and Sam Mikulak of the United States were just three-tenths of a point apart in qualifying for the final. That’s roughly the same margin as in Monday’s thrilling women’s floor final, when Jade Carey won by about three-tenths of a second over fifth-place finisher Rebeca Andrade of Brazil.
3:59 a.m. ET, 3:59 a.m. ET, 3:59 a.m. ET, 3:59 a.m
3:59 a.m. ET, 3:59 a.m. ET, 3:59 a.m. ET, 3:59 a.m
This is terrible news for Iordache, a gifted Romanian gymnast who has been injured many times at the worst conceivable moments.
3:57 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:57 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
The final balance beam start list has been revised, and it seems that Larisa Iordache of Romania is no longer on it, with Urara Ashikawa of Japan taking her place.
3:52 a.m. ET, August 3, 2021
3:52 a.m. ET, August 3, 2021
Guan Chenchen of China is one guy to keep an eye on. She is the last one to go tonight. She seemed to warm up faster than the rest of the competitors, and she was on point when rehearsing a routine that was obviously more challenging than her competitors’ during qualifying.
3:45 a.m. ET, 3:45 a.m. ET, 3:45 a.m. ET, 3:45 a.m
3:45 a.m. ET, 3:45 a.m. ET, 3:45 a.m. ET, 3:45 a.m
In the parallel bars, Sam Mikulak of the United States has a chance to earn a medal. Credit… The New York Times/Chang W. Lee
Eight men, including American Sam Mikulak, will compete on the parallel bars before the women’s beam final. The gymnasts will swing between two bars that are about 1112 feet long and more than 6 feet tall. The males, like the ladies on uneven bars, make the job seem simple.
“If Sam goes clean, he has a chance to medal, but only if some of the other competitors falter,” said Kensley Behel, a men’s gymnastics specialist and host of the Gymcastic podcast.
Zou Jingyuan of China, who qualified for the final in first position, claimed she is “nearly assured the gold medal,” admitting that nothing in gymnastics is ever definite, as these Games have taught us.
She went on to say that a stalled dismount on this equipment might make the difference between being on the podium and finishing fourth or fifth.
The Americans have yet to earn a medal in men’s gymnastics in Tokyo; they finished sixth in the team final last week. “They essentially did exactly what we anticipated them to do,” Behel said of the squad, “which is that they are near the top but not at the top.”
After the beam final, there is one more men’s event: the horizontal bar, also known as the high bar, where Brody Malone will have one more opportunity to win a medal for the United States.
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3:31 a.m. ET, 3:31 a.m. ET, 3:31 a.m. ET, 3:31 a.m
3:31 a.m. ET, 3:31 a.m. ET, 3:31 a.m. ET, 3:31 a.m
Guan Chenchen of China took first place in balance beam qualification, in part because her routine was more challenging than the others. Credit… The New York Times/Chang W. Lee
In addition to Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee, the following six athletes qualified in the following order:
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Guan Chenchen, 16, of China, is in Tokyo for her beam performance, which received a lot of attention during the qualifying round. With a score of 14.933, she outperformed the rest of the competition, owing in part to a difficulty score almost half a point higher than any other qualifier.
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Tang Xijing, 18, of China, finished second in qualifying with a score of 14.333 on the beam. Unlike Guan, who has had more than a week to recover from the qualifying round and prepare for the final, Tang — the 2019 global all-around silver medalist — participated in the team final and the all-around final on all four apparatuses, and will be fatigued going into Tuesday’s event.
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Ellie Black, 25, of Canada, was the fifth-place qualifier with a score of 14.1 with a routine that was more difficult than any other competitor save Guan and Biles, but she was unable to compete in the all-around final due to an ankle injury. Regardless, Black, who won the global all-around silver medal in 2017 and is participating in her third Olympics, would be the first Canadian woman to earn an Olympic medal in women’s gymnastics.
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With a score of 14.0, Vladislava Urazova, 16, of Russia, qualified eighth. She won gold with the Russian team last week and finished fourth in the all-around, but she is unlikely to win on beam since her difficulty score is just 5.8, which is almost a full point lower than Guan’s and several tenths lower than the average in this final.
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Flávia Saraiva, 21, of Brazil, was the last qualifier with a score of 13.966 and is in the same boat as Urazova with a difficulty level of 5.9. She, like Iordache and Black, may be nursing an injury; she seemed to injure her ankle during her qualifying round floor performance. She finished sixth in the beam final at the 2016 Olympics.
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Because of the withdrawal of Larisa Iordache of Romania, Urara Ashikawa of Japan was added to the start list on Tuesday. On the balance beam, Ashikawa had qualified 12th.
3:19 a.m. ET, August 3, 2021
3:19 a.m. ET, August 3, 2021
Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee, as well as many other participants in the balance beam final, warmed up on the balancing beam in front of a throng of cameras. Biles did a double pike on a couple of her dismounts, which, as Maggie pointed out, is less difficult than what she did in qualifying.
3:12 a.m. ET, August 3, 2021
3:12 a.m. ET, August 3, 2021
Sunisa Lee qualified third on the balance beam before winning the all-around gold. Credit… The New York Times/David Mills
Simone Biles, 24, will compete in her only apparatus final at these Games, and it’s unclear if she’ll repeat her qualifying performance, which had a 6.5 difficulty rating. If she could avoid the huge stumble she suffered on her full-twisting double back dismount, she’d be a serious gold candidate. (She qualified for the final as the sixth qualifier due to that error, although she would have finished second if it hadn’t been for it.) However, since her mental barrier is related to twisting, she may transition to a double pike dismount, lowering her difficulty by 0.4 points.
Sunisa Lee, 18, said before the Olympics that she hoped to win a medal on balance beam, and she may have done so: she finished third in the qualifying round with a score of 14.2. But, with so many talented gymnasts in the final, she can’t afford to make any mistakes. She scored 14.133 in the team final, just missing out on her qualifying mark, and 13.833 in the all-around final after almost losing her balance on her first skill.
3:50 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:50 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
During the team final, Biles. Credit… The New York Times/David Mills
The balance beam final will conclude the women’s gymnastics competitions in Tokyo on Tuesday, and Simone Biles will compete for the first time since withdrawing from the team final a week ago.
It’s Biles’ last chance at an individual medal after she qualified for every final but had to withdraw from the all-around, vault, uneven bars, and floor exercise due to a mental block that prohibited her from competing safely.
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3:49 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:49 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
During the qualifying round, Biles competed on the balance beam. Credit… The New York Times/David Mills
The women’s balance beam competition is part of the Tokyo Games’ final gymnastics events. In addition, there are two men’s competitions: parallel bars and high bar. At 5:50 p.m. local time in Tokyo, the women’s balance beam competition will begin. For American viewers, the time is off, but here are your options:
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LIVE: The action will begin at 4:50 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday and will be shown live on the NBC Olympics website, Peacock, and the NBC Sports app.
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NBC will air a tape-delayed program at 8 p.m. Eastern time, which many fans will choose to watch.
3:48 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
3:48 a.m. ET, Aug. 3, 2021
Credit: The New York Times/Chang W. Lee
The final will include the top eight gymnasts on beam from the qualifying round, with a maximum of two gymnasts per nation. (The two-per-country rule eliminated China’s fifth-ranked gymnast, Lu Yufei, and allowed Brazil’s ninth-ranked gymnast, Flávia Saraiva, to progress.)
Each routine will be given a difficulty score and an execution score, which will be combined together to generate final scores. A guide to beam skills and scoring may be found here.
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