The Women's Balance Beam Final will take place on Monday, August 15th at 1:00pm EST, the second day of event finals, along with men's rings and men's vault. The beam final consists of the top eight qualifiers with the two-per-country rule. A total of seven countries will be represented in this year's final. The field consists of World and Olympic Champions, as well as some newcomers who are just starting to make their mark on the international stage.

USA's Simone Biles qualified first with a 15.633. Biles has the highest difficulty out of all the finalists and is a favorite to take the gold medal, after already winning individual golds in the all-around and vault. Biles is a two-time World Champion on beam, and she also won the bronze in 2013 in Antwerp. She has competed on balance beam three times so far in Rio and has not scored below a 15.3. Biles' teammate Laurie Hernandez qualified just behind Biles with a 15.366. Hernandez is relatively new to the international stage given that this is her first year as a senior. She competed beam during the Team Final and scored a 15.233. At Olympic Trials last month, Hernandez had the highest score on beam after two days of competition.

16-year old Flavia Saraiva from Brazil qualified into 3rd place. Saraiva has competed at several World Cups this year, and won gold at Anadia and Baku on beam. Her qualifying to the final is historic for Brazil, as the country has never qualified a gymnast into the balance beam final at the Olympics. Saraiva is confident on beam and has a good shot at a medal if she hits.

Sanne Wevers from the Netherlands qualified in 4th with a 15.066. Like Saraiva, Wevers' qualification is historic for her country, since the Dutch have never qualified a gymnast into an Olympic beam final. Her gymnastics is beautiful on beam and she has some of the most unique combinations across the field, such as her acrobatic series of two aerial cartwheels connected into a front aerial.

Romania's only chance at a medal during this Olympics in women's gymnastics comes on beam thanks to Catalina Ponor, who qualified in 5th place. Ponor is already an Olympic gold medalist on the beam, having won the event at the 2004 Games, and she narrowly missed out on a bronze medal at the 2012 Games after a tie-breaker put her in fourth. Ponor also has two World medals on beam - a silver from 2003 and a bronze from 2005. On the European stage, she has won five golds on the event from 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2012. Most recently, she won the bronze in Bern this year.

The final three places in the final are taken by China's Fan Yilin, who won the gold medal on beam at Asian Championships in 2015, France's Marine Boyer, who won the silver medal on beam at European Championships this year, and Canada's Isabela Onyshko, the current Canadian Champion on beam.

To see how the competition stacks up, we have broken down their difficulty and execution scores from the qualification round:

Highest Difficulty Scores:
1. Simone Biles (USA): 6.7
2. Isabela Onyshko (CAN): 6.5
3. (T) Laurie Hernandez (USA): 6.4
3. (T) Fan Yilin (CHN): 6.4
4. (T) Flavia Saraiva (BRA): 6.3
4. (T) Sanne Wevers (NED): 6.3
5. (T) Catalina Ponor (ROU): 6.2
5. (T) Marine Boyer (FRA): 6.2

Highest Execution Scores:
1. Laurie Hernandez (USA): 8.966
2. Simone Biles (USA): 8.933
3. Flavia Saraiva (BRA): 8.833
4. Sanne Wevers (NED): 8.766
5. Catalina Ponor (ROU): 8.7
6. Fan Yilin (CHN): 8.466
7. Marine Boyer (FRA): 8.4
8. Isabela Onyshko (CAN): 8.033


Related:
Rio 2016 Event Finals Start List: Day 2
Women's Finalists at the 2016 Rio Olympics
Results: Women's Event Finals - 2016 Rio Olympics