World Artistic Gymnastics Championships – Women's balance beam

Women's events at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships^[1][2] were first held in 1934, at the 10th World Championships. Only the All-Around and Team events were held. In 1938, at the 11th World Championships, the other apparatus events were added.

The women's balance beam competition has been held in every year since its inception.

Three medals are awarded: gold for first place, silver for second place, and bronze for third place. Tie breakers have not been used in every year. In the event of a tie between two gymnasts, both names are listed, and the following position (second for a tie for first, third for a tie for second) is left empty because a medal was not awarded for that position. If three gymnastics tied for a position, the following two positions are left empty.

Medalists

Bold numbers in brackets denotes record number of victories.

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1938	Prague *	Vlasta Děkanová *	unknown	unknown
1950	Basel	Helena Rakoczy	Marja Nutti	Licia Macchini
1954	Rome	Keiko Tanaka	Eva Bosáková	Ágnes Keleti
1958	Moscow	Larisa Latynina	Sofia Muratova	Keiko Tanaka
1962	Prague	Eva Bosáková	Larisa Latynina	Anikó Ducza Keiko Ikeda
1966	Dortmund	Natalia Kuchinskaya	Věra Čáslavská	Larisa Petrik
1970	Ljubljana	Erika Zuchold	Cathy Rigby	Larisa Petrik Christine Schmitt
1974	Varna	Ludmilla Tourischeva	Olga Korbut	Nellie Kim
1978	Strasbourg	Nadia Comăneci	Elena Mukhina	Emilia Eberle
1979	Fort Worth	Věra Černá	Nellie Kim	Regina Grabolle
1981	Moscow	Maxi Gnauck	Chen Yongyan	Tracee Talavera Wu Jiani
1983	Budapest	Olga Mostepanova	Hana Říčná	Lavinia Agache
1985	Montreal	Daniela Silivaș	Ecaterina Szabó	Yelena Shushunova
1987	Rotterdam	Aurelia Dobre	Yelena Shushunova	Svetlana Boginskaya Ecaterina Szabó
1989	Stuttgart	Daniela Silivaș	Olesya Dudnik	Gabriela Potorac
1991	Indianapolis	Svetlana Boginskaya	Tatiana Gutsu	Lavinia Miloșovici Betty Okino
1992	Paris	Kim Zmeskal	Li Yifang Maria Neculiță	—
1993	Birmingham	Lavinia Miloșovici	Dominique Dawes	Gina Gogean
1994	Brisbane	Shannon Miller	Lilia Podkopayeva	Oksana Fabrichnova
1995	Sabae	Mo Huilan	Dominique Moceanu Lilia Podkopayeva	—
1996	San Juan	Dina Kochetkova	Alexandra Marinescu	Dominique Dawes Liu Xuan
1997	Lausanne	Gina Gogean	Svetlana Khorkina	Kui Yuanyuan
1999	Tianjin	Ling Jie	Andreea Răducan	Olha Rozshchupkina
2001	Ghent	Andreea Răducan	Ludmila Ezhova	Sun Xiaojiao
2002	Debrecen	Ashley Postell	Oana Ban	Irina Yarotska
2003	Anaheim	Fan Ye	Cătălina Ponor	Ludmila Ezhova
2005	Melbourne	Nastia Liukin	Chellsie Memmel	Cătălina Ponor
2006	Aarhus	Iryna Krasnianska	Sandra Izbașa	Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs
2007	Stuttgart	Nastia Liukin	Li Shanshan Steliana Nistor	—
2009	London	Deng Linlin	Lauren Mitchell	Ivana Hong
2010	Rotterdam	Ana Porgras	Rebecca Bross Deng Linlin	—
2011	Tokyo	Sui Lu	Yao Jinnan	Jordyn Wieber
2013	Antwerp	Aliya Mustafina	Kyla Ross	Simone Biles
2014	Nanning	Simone Biles	Bai Yawen	Aliya Mustafina
2015	Glasgow	Simone Biles	Sanne Wevers	Pauline Schäfer
2017	Montreal	Pauline Schäfer	Morgan Hurd	Tabea Alt
2018	Doha	Liu Tingting	Ana Padurariu	Simone Biles
2019	Stuttgart	Simone Biles	Liu Tingting	Li Shijia
2021	Kitakyushu	Urara Ashikawa	Pauline Schäfer-Betz	Mai Murakami
2022	Liverpool	Hazuki Watanabe	Ellie Black	Miyata Shoko
2023	Antwerp	Simone Biles (4)	Zhou Yaqin	Rebeca Andrade

* There is conflicting and incomplete information about medal winners in the individual apparatus events at the 1938 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships as non-primary sources gives different information about it.

All-time medal count

Last updated after the 2023 World Championships.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	9	7	7	23
2	Romania	8	8	7	23
3	China	6	8	5	19
4	Soviet Union	5	8	5	18
5	Czechoslovakia	3	3	0	6
6	Japan	3	0	4	7
7	Russia	2	2	3	7
8	East Germany	2	0	2	4
9	Ukraine	1	2	2	5
10	Germany	1	1	2	4
11	Poland	1	0	0	1
12	Canada	0	2	1	3
13	Italy	0	1	1	2
14	Australia	0	1	0	1
	Netherlands	0	1	0	1
16	Hungary	0	0	2	2
17	Brazil	0	0	1	1
Totals (17 entries)		41	44	42	127

Multiple medalists

Rank	Gymnast	Nation	Years	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Simone Biles	United States	2013–2023	4	0	2	6
2	Nastia Liukin	United States	2005–2007	2	0	0	2
	Daniela Silivaș	Romania	1985–1989	2	0	0	2
4	Pauline Schäfer	Germany	2015–2021	1	1	1	3
5	Eva Bosáková	Czechoslovakia	1954–1962	1	1	0	2
	Deng Linlin	China	2009–2010	1	1	0	2
	Larisa Latynina	Soviet Union	1958–1962	1	1	0	2
	Liu Tingting	China	2018–2019	1	1	0	2
	Andreea Răducan	Romania	1999–2001	1	1	0	2
10	Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda	Japan	1954–1958	1	0	2	3
11	Svetlana Boginskaya	Soviet Union	1987–1991	1	0	1	2
	Gina Gogean	Romania	1993–1997	1	0	1	2
	Lavinia Miloșovici	Romania	1991–1993	1	0	1	2
	Aliya Mustafina	Russia	2013–2014	1	0	1	2
15	Lilia Podkopayeva	Ukraine	1994–1995	0	2	0	2
16	Dominique Dawes	United States	1993–1996	0	1	1	2
	Ludmila Ezhova	Russia	2001–2003	0	1	1	2
	Nellie Kim	Soviet Union	1974–1979	0	1	1	2
	Cătălina Ponor	Romania	2003–2005	0	1	1	2
	Yelena Shushunova	Soviet Union	1985–1987	0	1	1	2
	Ecaterina Szabo	Romania	1985–1987	0	1	1	2
22	Larisa Petrik	Soviet Union	1966–1970	0	0	2	2