Olympics Gymnastics 2012: Competitors Most Likely to Take All-Around Gold

Gymnastics, once again, has a good chance to steal the show at the 2012 London Olympics. 

The intriguing sport takes a back stage 95 percent of the time, but once the Olympics roll around, it becomes easily one of the most watched.

And it's not hard to see why.

Who doesn't want to see limber athletes flip and spin and pull off maneuvers that the rest of the population could only dream of doing? Even though it doesn't involve a ball, it's an exciting sport that provides plenty of thrills.

The event to pay attention to, of course, is the artistic individual all-around competition, which consists of athletes battling in an array of events—floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bars—to see who is the best overall gymnast. 

Let's take a look at who is most likely to take home gold.

Men: Kohei Uchimura, Japan

While most Americans will be pulling for John Orozco or Danell Leyva to bring back the ultimate medal, the chances of anyone challenging Uchimura in the all-around are slim to none. 

Uchimura is just too good. 

After taking silver in Beijing four years ago, the Nagasaki native has taken gold at the World Championships three years in a row. If the 23-year-old doesn't make it four golds in a row in London, it would be very surprising. 

Someone like Philipp Boy of Germany or Koji Yamamuro, Uchimura's teammate, could surprise, just don't expect the favorite to walk with silver or anything worse. 

Women: Jordyn Wieber, USA

After Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson took gold and silver in Beijing, the Americans might be a little spoiled. This year's batch of gymnasts has a good shot at repeating the feat in London, but it won't be as easy.

The top candidate to take home gold for the good ol' US of A has to be 17-year-old Jordyn Wieber. She took home gold at the 2011 World Championships, and while she didn't dominate at the U.S. Trials, she is the clear favorite to win gold.

Of course, the Americans also boast another solid candidate in Gabby Douglas. The 16-year-old is less proven in the all-around competition (only a silver at the 2012 Visa Championships), but she took first at the U.S. Trials, proving herself to be worthy competition against Wieber.

These girls both have a good shot at gold.

Viktoria Komova, Russia

The one standing in their way, however, is this 17-year-old Russian. While Wieber took gold in Tokyo last year with a total score of 59.382, Komova was right behind her, grabbing silver with a 59.349.

The fact that she was close means that Komova will only work that much harder to steal the gold from the talented U.S. ladies.

This should be a three-way race for women's gymnastics' top honor, and I don't expect any of these three to miss out on a medal. 

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