Olympic gymnastic results 2016: Sanne Wevers wins gold medal in women’s balance beam

Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands has won the gold medal in the women’s balance beam finals. Team USA’s Laurie Hernandez took silver, and Simone Biles of the United States brought home the bronze medal.

Fan Yilin of China kicked off the competition, scoring a 14.500. She was followed by Isabela Onyshko of Canada, who got her routine off to a great start but fell. She did finish strong, but scored a 13.400 due to the fall.

Midway through her routine, Team USA’s Simone Biles stumbled, putting her hands on the beam to regain her balance. Her routine was otherwise flawless. Biles’ routine carried a high degree of difficulty, which helped her score a 14.733 despite the stumble.

Wevers, of the Netherlands, who finished second to Biles on the beam at the World Championship in 2015, had a very unique routine and executed it beautifully, scoring a 15.466. The Dutch women had never won a medal in women’s gymnastics before.

Cātālina Ponor of Romania, the oldest gymnast in the beam final at age 28, had a couple of balance checks in her routine, and she finished with a score of 14.000.

Hernandez of the United States completed a beautiful routine. She remained calm and collected throughout and nailed each element, but her score of 15.333 was not quite good enough to unseat Wevers from the top spot. An inquiry was filed on behalf of Hernandez to ensure she received appropriate scores for each element of her routine, but the inquiry was rejected.

Marine Boyer of France scored a 14.600 on her routine, and France filed an inquiry on her behalf, also. Next up was Brazil’s Flávia Saraiva. In the qualifier, Team USA’s closest competition was Brazil’s Saraiva, who scored a 15.133 to advance to the finals, but her performance in the finals was good enough for fifth.

It was an opportunity for Team USA’s Simone Biles to add a fourth gold medal to her collection after dominating each event she’s competed in during the Rio Games, but she took bronze instead. Biles had already secured gold medals in the women’s team all-around competition, the individual all-around and the women’s vault. In the preliminaries for the balance beam, Biles took first place with a score of 15.633.

Hernandez took second in the qualifier with a score of 15.366. The United States placed first in the balance beam event in the team all-around with a score of 45.533.

The United States women continue to flourish in Rio, and particularly Biles. Team USA’s Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas tied for seventh in the beam preliminaries with scores of 14.833. The score was high enough for both to qualify for the finals, but only two athletes from one country can compete in a single finals event.