US Women's Gymnastic Olympic Team 2012: Top Threats to America's Hopes for Gold

The United States women's gymnastics team enters the 2012 Olympic Games in London as one of the leading favorites to win their first gold medal in the team all-around event since 1996.

Led by 2011 all-around world champion Jordyn Wieber, who is widely considered the finest women's gymnast in the world today, the Americans feature a deep and talented squad that is more than capable of erasing recent Olympic disappointments.

However, the United States isn't the only nation sending a solid team to London, and here's a look at some of the top contenders to dash America's hopes at their first women's team gold in 16 years.

Romania

Romania has long been an Olympic powerhouse on the women's side, with their 23 total medals in Olympic competition trailing only Russia (including the USSR).

However, the Romanian national team has struggled somewhat in recent years. As The New Straits Times reports, that may well be the result of a drastic reduction in funding for the team since the fall of communism in the country over 20 years ago.

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"Gymnastics, like all sport in Romania, is the victim of chronic under-funding, which reflects a period of transition that is still to finish," Adrian Stoica, the president of the Romanian Gynnastics Federation, said.

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There's some room for optimism for the Romanian team as they head to London, however. The 2000 and 2004 Olympic gold medalists took four of five gold medals at last year's European Championships, and while the Romanians undoubtedly wish they had Nadia Comaneci in their arsenal this year the team does possess some world-class talent.

22-year-old Sandra Izbasa will defend her 2008 Olympic gold medal in the floor exercise alongside European champion Larisa Lordache. Catalina Ponor may be the biggest thorn in the Americans' sides, as the three-time gold medalist in Athens excels on the balance beam, one of Team USA's weaker events.

Russia

For many years during the height of the Cold War, one of the highlights of the Olympics every four years was watching as the Americans and Soviets competed in gymnastic events that served as a metaphor for the political battles that dominated the news.

However, since the fall of the Soviet Union, a women's gymnastic team that was absolutely dominant has fallen on hard times. The team hit rock bottom four years ago at the Beijing Games, where the Russian women failed to win a single medal in artistic gymnastics.

The Russians are hoping to reverse that trend in London behind Aliya Mustafina, the 2010 all-around world champion and a specialist on the uneven bars. However, both Mustafina and fellow uneven bars specialist Victoria Komova have been battling injuries leading up to London, and the health of the Russian squad may be the biggest hurdle blocking their return to Olympic prominence.

China

The last of the "big four" nation's in women's gymnastics, the Chinese are the defending Olympic champions, making themselves the toast of the world's most populous country by bringing home gold in Beijing four years ago.

That victory didn't come without controversy, however. As The New York Times recapped in a recent piece many observers at the Beijing Games believed the Chinese were using underage athletes, a violation that cost the team a bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, but one that was hotly denied by Chinese team coach Lu Shanzen in Beijing.

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“It’s unfair that people keep saying the Chinese are too young to compete,” China’s Coach Lu Shanzen said, in Mandarin.”If they think they can tell someone’s age just by looking at them, well, if you look at the foreign athletes, they have so much more muscles than the Chinese. They are so strong. Do you then say that they are doping?”

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Past controversies aside, the Chinese will once again field a strong team in London, led by 17-year-old Yao Jinnan, who placed third in the women's all-around at the 2011 World Championships. Yao will be joined by 20-year-old Huang Qiushuang, a dangerous competitor in all four events, and Jiang Yuyuan as the cornerstones of a Chinese team hoping to repeat as Olympic champions.

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