Balance Beam, Women

Sui Lu of China was the reigning World and Asian Games Champion and a favorite to continue her streak in the women’s balance beam at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Her closest challenger was probably her compatriot Deng Linlin, 2009 World Champion and runner-up at both the 2010 World Championships and the 2010 Asian Games. The reigning European Champion was Cătălina Ponor of Romania, who had also won the title from 2004 through 2006 and was a three time Olympic gold medalist from the 2004 Games (including the balance beam). Her compatriot Larisa Iordache was also a contender, having come in second at the most recent European Championships. Many eyes were also on the Americans as potential podium finishers, after they had won gold and silver at the 2008 Olympics.

Sui finished first in the qualifying rounds, bolstering her status as a favorite to win the gold medal. Viktoriya Komova of Russia, the reigning World and European Champion in the uneven bars, finished a surprising second in the event, tied in score with American Gabby Douglas. Deng finished in fourth, Ponor in seventh, and Iordache in eleventh, but Diana Boulimar, who finished eighth, fell from the beam and injured herself, which gave her spot to team reserve Iordache. In the final Sui went first and set the bar with a score of 15.500 after an excellent routine of high difficulty. Ponor went next and finished nearly half a point behind, after several mistakes, at 15.066. After a fantastic routine by Deng, with an even higher difficulty than Sui’s, the reigning World Champion was bumped down on the podium and it seemed as if Ponor was all but out of medal contention. After falls from Iordache, Douglas, Komova, and a low-difficulty routine from Kseniya Afanasyeva of Russia, however, Ponor remained in third place with only one gymnast remaining, Aly Raisman of the United States. Raisman completed her routine and initially received a score of 14.966, just below Ponor. Her coach appealed the difficulty score of 6.200, however, which seemed far too low for what she had performed. He was successful in this attempt, raising the difficulty by 0.1, which was sufficient to tie her with Ponor. By virtue of Raisman’s superior execution points, the appeal gave her the final podium spot, ending a gymnastics event in somewhat controversial circumstances for the second time in the Games. Earlier, in the men’s team all-around, a similar last minute appeal lowered the penalty for an error committed by Japan’s Kohei Uchimura, which raised his nation’s standing from fourth to second place.