In women’s gymnastics, the apparatus built around a 4-inch-wide elevated beam is the balance beam. Gymnasts perform leaps, turns, jumps, acrobatic skills, and dismounts while controlling their balance on its narrow surface.
The beam is 4 inches, or about 10 centimetres, wide and 16 feet, or about 5 metres, long. It is raised roughly 1.25 metres above the floor, making the apparatus demanding even though its top surface is no wider than a hand. Routines combine dance and tumbling, and judges evaluate difficulty, execution, artistry, and landing control.
The other women’s artistic-gymnastics apparatuses are vault, uneven bars, and floor exercise. Those events create different mix-ups: vault uses a springboard and vaulting table, uneven bars involve two rails at different heights, and floor routines take place on a sprung mat. Balance beam became part of the women’s Olympic gymnastics programme at the 1936 Berlin Games.