Who was the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 on the balance beam at the Olympics?

Who was the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 on the balance beam at the Olympics? Nadia Comaneci was the gymnast who achieved it.

The Romanian star earned a perfect 10.00 on balance beam at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, where she won the apparatus gold medal. Her beam performance was one of several flawless routines during a breakthrough Olympic campaign at age 14.

Comaneci is most famous for receiving the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics history, on the uneven bars during the team competition. The Montreal scoreboard was not designed to display a 10.00, so it showed “1.00,” briefly confusing spectators before the judges’ result became clear.

She recorded seven perfect scores at the 1976 Games, including three on balance beam and four on uneven bars. Comaneci won three gold medals in Montreal: the individual all-around, uneven bars, and balance beam. The sport later abandoned the traditional perfect-10 scoring system in favor of an open-ended code that separates difficulty and execution.