The first gymnast to lose a medal in a physical activity: Monday’s beam final of Alice D’Amato and Zhou Yaqin

It is perhaps the trickiest apparatus in women’s gymnastics. Athletes must pack as much experience as they can into a 90-second routine, featuring back handsprings, legged turns, flips, jumps and leaps, all performed on an apparatus just four inches wide.

It is possible that biles was not immune. There was a flip layout that proved too off-kilter in the balance beam final, and Biles fell to the mat. Ultimately, her score of 13.1 was not enough to earn her a medal. Italy’s Alice D’Amato took the gold. Italy’s Manila Esposito got bronze, followed by Zhou Yaqin of China.

The beam final was the first of two events for the gymnast on Monday. The floor exercise in which she is the favorite to win gold will follow after about two hours.

Many of the other competitors in the final fell or wobbled badly on the balance beam, but it was one of those days. One of the few to perform without a major error, D’Amato took the gold. China’s Zhou Yaqin won silver, followed by Italy’s Manila Esposito with bronze.

“Balance beam is such an unforgiving, uncertain event. Zhou said that mistakes happen all the time. “I think the falters, falls, stumbles are because of the high pressure and the nature of balance beam.”

A bad fall doomed Suni Lee’s chances at a medal in Monday’s beam final. “There was a lot of pressure and I felt it.” It was crazy to see how everybody was going down like that,” Lee said afterward.

The large crowd wasn’t loud and spectators shushed the gymnasts when they tried to cheer on their competitors. “We didn’t like that, because it was just so silent in there,” Lee said. When I was there, it was possible to hear me breathing. It adds to the stress.”

The falls seeped into the men’s events, too. More than a third of the competitors fell or slipped during their dismount in the horizontal bar final.

Biles is not going to compete in gymnastics, but she has been pushed by Chiles 23 and Brazil 25+ years after winning the Olympic gold medal

Most elite female gymnasts are in their 20s. After the 25-year-old Rebeca Andrade and 23-year-old Jordan Chiles, no competitor who faced Biles on Monday was older than 21. They were in their teens.

“I’m not very upset or anything about my performance at the Olympics. I’m actually very happy, proud and even more excited that it’s over,” Biles said afterward.

After her Olympic run ended, she has not said if she will stay in gymnastics. On Sunday, she chastised journalists for inquiring.

The floor exercise gold medal went to Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, who won by just 0.033 after Biles was docked six-tenths of a point for twice stepping out of bounds. Jordan Chiles was a gymnast.