100 Days to London! The Questions Amongst The Excitement

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The Opening Ceremony to the 2012 Olympic Games, the 30th Olympiad, will be on Friday, June 12 in London, England. Here are some of the things I am excited for and many of the questions that came up as I thought about the different gymnastics events that will take place starting on July 29 (July 28th for the men).

1. The Team Competition - who will win in the battle of USA vs Russia? China vs Romania? Any surprises from the other teams that aren't in the big 4. Will Wu Liufang (China) finally make a team? Will Pitic (Raluca Haidu of Romania) be left home?

2. The All Around Final - Russia seems to be leaning towards Viktoria Komova and Aliya Mustafina. The United States seems to be stuck in a stalemate. Jordyn Wieber is a sure all-arounder for Team USA with Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, and Kyla Ross all fighting for the same spot in the all around finals.  For Romania, the clear option is currently Larisa Iordache. The question is who the 2nd all around gymnast will be since Sandra Izbasa is training bars again. Last year, the 2nd all around gymnast for Romania was Raluca Haidu but she is currently not on the Olympic team predicted by Octavian Belu, Romania's head coach, earlier in the year.And let us take a moment to remember the grace and beauty that was one Miss Ana Porgras. Who will make the finals for China and will they be able to compete and medal without a fall?

For the other countries that aren't power houses - will Jessica Lopez of Venezula have a successful Olympics? Will Elsa Garcia be able to make a name for herself and Mexico? Will Hannah Whelan of Great Britain be able to hold it together in front of a home crowd for a top 8 finish? Will Koko Tsurumi get to redeem herself after a tough outing in front of her home crowd at 2011 Worlds in Tokyo?

I might be the only person in the gymnastics fan world still rooting for Jessica Gil Ortiz, the gymnast from Colombia that fell horribly on her head during floor finals in 2010, but I sure hope she is chosen to represent Colombia and does an excellent job doing so - and maybe even sneaks into floor finals again.





3. Vault Finals - Will Maroney of the USA even make the team, let alone become Olympic Vault Champion? Will Chusovitna of Germany medal or unveil a new vault? Sometime back, she mentioned that she would perform a vault at Worlds never done by a woman. This was around the same time Alicia Sacramone (USA) posted a video of her doing a front handspring double full. Was this the vault Chusovitna meant? Heck, will ASac recover well enough from her Achilles injury to make the team? Will Pena (Dominican Republic) successfully (and not life threatening-ly) land the Prudunova? I'm rooting for Jade Barbosa (Jade Barbosa) and her NOT twisting her ankle into 4th place. Will Cheng Fei of China be back and be able to medal without a fall? Will Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland sneak her way in to the medals?

4. Uneven Bars Finals - Will Tweddle finally medal and will it be gold? Who will make finals for the Russians - Komova vs Grishina vs Mustafina? I also wonder the same thing for the Chinese. Will He Kexin make the team? Will she and Tweddle get to have another duel? Will Nastia be there as well? My fingers are crossed for Gabby Douglas getting a medal. Can Youna Dufournet of France make event finals and successfully compete in the finals? Will Seitz of Germany make the finals with both the Def as well as her original move, the Seitz?

5. Balance Beam - I guess I'm not that excited for balance beam finals. It will likely be a battle of who stays on, with the highest difficulty, and the least errors. I am hoping that Vasiliki Millousi of Greece can make event finals. She is such a pleasure to watch on beam. Everyone talks about Ponor's maturity and attack on beam. Millousi has a different kind of maturity and attack. She really dances along the beam and just makes everything look so... perfect.



6. Floor Exercise Finals - I think I am most excited for these finals. There are three gymnasts that I can think of right now with double twisting double tucks on floor exercise and all with a good chance of making it into floor finals and receiving a medal - Vanessa Ferrari of Italy, Jordyn Wieber of the USA, and Victoria Moors of Canada. The Romanians have so much depth on floor, so one has to stop and wonder who will be the 2 gymnasts allowed to compete in the floor exercise finals - 2004 Floor Olympic Gold Medalist Catalina Ponor, 2008 Floor Olympic Gold Medalist Sandra Izbasa, 2010 Floor World Silver Medalist Diana Chelaru, or 2010 Youth Olympic Games Floor Silver Medalist Diana Bulimar.

I am most excited for this. I really hope Victoria Moors does well. I also think part of the reason I love her routine is that her split series is actually choreographed to be with the music. Also, she's actually performing! Such an amazing concept!