As Olympic gymnast and commentator Laurie Hernandez said, it was almost as if the balance beam today was made of butter.

It all started when China's top-ranked athlete Zhou Yaqin (the first athlete to compete in the individual all-around final) placed her hand on the beam to steady herself after her full straight jump. The result: a five-tenths deduction and a score of 14.100.

Next was the American. Suni Lee. She came in looking to take gold after scoring 14.033 in the qualifying rounds, but took a full tumble during her flying series and landed face down on the floor. (Hernandez audibly gasped when it happened.) Lee got up and finished her routine, but the fall cost her the podium; she finished sixth, with a score of 13.100.

And then there was Simone Bileswho also tripped halfway through her acrobatic series and fell off the beam, unable to regain her balance. The crowd, consisting of thousands of people, gasped. She remounted and finished, but ended up with a score of 13.100, which put her in fifth place, despite having the second-highest score for the qualifier (14.733).

The series of slips illustrates the sheer concentration it takes for a gymnast to stay steady on the beam. And when a competitor, especially a high-profile one, fails, it creates a domino effect and everyone becomes that much more nervous. In total, half of today's finalists fell.

“I don’t know what I just saw,” Hernandez said afterward. “You only have four inches to work with those nerves, and they can hit you; they seem to hit almost everyone.”

In a post-event interview, Lee agreed, saying that the buildup of atmospheric pressure and fatigue from the long competition — “just knowing that we're so close to finishing, I feel like we're a little bit ahead of ourselves” — combined to throw everyone off their game.

And then there was the silence in the stadium. “I love a crowd, so having the energy of the crowd, especially after you finish your routine, is really helpful,” Lee said. “It was too quiet, too silent. I could literally hear myself breathing.” She also noted that the silence gave her “too much time to think.”

Keeping one foot on the narrow beam is a challenge for gymnasts on their best days. “I feel mentally, [the beam is] “It’s the toughest event because it’s so unforgiving,” said Lee’s coach, Jess Graba. Glamor in 2020. “You’re on the beam the whole time and if you have even a small mental hiccup, it will show throughout the rest of the routine.”

That makes the apparatus a little more prone to shaking and surprising medalists than some of the other events, Canadian gymnast Ellie Black said in the same message. Glamor Interview. “The margin for error is very small,” he said. “You will see the best in the world fail in that test simply because it is so difficult. In reality, anyone can compete.”

And as the world's best fell today, it meant there were no American medals in this event for the first time since 2000. Italy's Alice D'Amato, despite some minor errors, took gold with 14.366, the country's first gold medal in women's gymnastics. Despite her deduction, Zhou took silver and Italy's Manila Esposito won bronze with 14.000.

Brazilian Rebeca Andrade started with a less difficult routine than Biles or Lee, so although she held her own throughout the routine, she ended up just short of the podium. She was fourth with 13.933.

Of course, Biles already had three gold medals at this year's Games, and Lee has one gold and two bronze. Biles had one more chance to go for a medal, in the floor exercise final, which began shortly after she finished on beam: after two steps out of bounds, she took silver, with a score of 14.133.

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