Aly Raisman Earns Bronze on Beam

Updated on Tuesday, Aug. 7 at 11 p.m.

Needham gymnast Aly Raisman won her first individual Olympic medal Tuesday morning with her performance on the balance beam.

Raisman, 18, won the bronze medal in the women's individual event, which began at 9:47 a.m. London time.

"After originally finishing 4th, an inquiry was made on Aly's score and was accepted, raising her difficulty score and tying her with Catalina Ponor [of Romania]," representatives of USA Gymnastics wrote in a Facebook post. "Aly gets the bronze after the tiebreaker!"

Raisman's teammate, women's all-around gold medalist Gabby Douglas, fell on the beam midway through her routine and finished seventh.

Douglas, who won the gold medal for the women's all-around last week, had difficulties on a leap and fell off the beam during the individual competition.

She finished strong with her dismount and scored a 13.633 for seventh place.

“I’m a little disappointed in my performance today, but I’m going home with two gold medals, which is great," Douglas said in an official release from USA Gymnastics. "I gave it my all today, but it wasn’t my day to shine."

During her turn on the beam, Raisman completed "a nice routine complete with her front tuck, flip flop, layout series, and double Arabian dismount," according to the USA Gymnastics press release. "Her score was flashed as a 14.966, but after a successful appeal the score was raised to a 15.066—the same score as Romania’s Catalina Ponor."

According to tie-breaking procedures, Raisman was awarded the bronze medal because she had a higher execution score than Ponor.

Raisman’s bronze medal marks the eighth ever Olympic medal for the USA on balance beam.

“I felt really good on my beam routine today, and I’m happy that it was good enough for bronze," Raisman said after the event. "This day has been so crazy and really special. I am really excited to celebrate with my family and friends tonight.”

The final scores in the balance beam final are as follows:

1. Gold medal: Deng Linlin of China, 15.600
2. Silver medal: Sui Lu of China, 15.500
3. Bronze medal: Aly Raisman of USA, 15.066
4. Catalina Ponor of Romania, 15.066
5. Kseniia Afanaseva of Russia, 14.583
6. Larisa Iordache of Romania, 14.200
7. Gabby Douglas of USA, 13.633
8. Victoria Komova of Russia, 13.166

Later in the day, Raisman along with U.S. teammate Jordyn Wieber. That event was scheduled to begin at 4:23 p.m. London time (11:23 a.m. Eastern Time).