Jordyn Wieber: Assessing USA Star's Gold Medal Chances

Jordyn Wieber is a gold medal machine.

The 17-year-old already boasts countless medals stemming from success in the American Cup, World, Pacific Rim and Visa Championships. The 2012 Summer Olympics may be her first in the planet’s most prestigious competition, but she’s well-adapted to performing on the grandest stages. Expect nothing less than to see Wieber leaving London with multiple gold medals around her neck.

Wieber talked with uinterview about her goals going into the Olympics. She said:

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Our first priority would be the team competition, so getting the team gold would be the first goal. My favorite event is either vault or beam. I like vault, because it's kind of a power event... And then beam has been my favorite ever since I was younger, so I've just enjoyed learning new skills. It sounds weird, but flipping on a four inch beam is fun.

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Winning the team competition should be effortless.

Team USA’s women’s gymnastics squad is stacked beyond belief. Wieber will be surrounded by the likes of Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Kyla Ross. Each member has multiple gold medals to their name, and every one of them—minus the 15-year-old Ross—was part of the group that won team gold in Tokyo’s 2011 World Championships.

In the vault, Wieber’s greatest competition will come from one of her own teammates. Maroney has won gold in three major competitions, including in Tokyo.

The vault, as well as the balance beam, will be difficult individual competitions for Wieber to win in. In the last World Championships, Wieber won bronze on the beam while China’s Sui Lu and Yao Jinnan took gold and silver.

But while Wieber doesn’t necessarily have a particular event in which she’s dominant in, she excels in all of them. That’s why she should not only be favored to fly home with a team all-around gold medal, but an individual one as well.

Wieber has won seven—I repeat, seven—individual all-around gold medals in her gymnastics career. And again, her greatest competition will also wear red, white and blue.

Douglas has never won all-around gold. In fact, silver in the 2012 Visa Championships is her only individual all-round medal. But she has improved significantly, and it showed when Douglas defeated Wieber to secure the lone automatic bid on the national team.

Still, if Wieber doesn’t leave London with at least two gold medals, it would be shocking.

David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

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