Hungary’s Ágnes Keleti won gold on the balance beam, one of her three apparatus gold medals in Melbourne, missing out only on the vault. She had also competed at the 1952 Olympics, but her Olympic career ended when she defected to Australia after the Melbourne Games, eventually settling in Israel. The silver medal was shared by Soviet Tamara Manina and Czechoslovak Eva Bosáková-Věchtová, who would win the gold medal on beam at Rome in 1960.
The 1956 women’s balance beam has some historical importance. During her Olympic career, Larysa Latynina won 18 Olympic medals, an absolute Olympic record that lasted until 2012 when Michael Phelps increased his total to 22 in London. Latynina competed in 19 Olympic events at three Olympics (1956-64), winning a medal in all but one of them – the 1956 balance beam in which she finished in a tie for fourth.
