Olympic Men's Gymnastics 2012: Biggest Names Who Will Get Fans Buzzing

As the individual all-around competition begins today there are a couple of names that fly off the page.

The favorite to take home gold, Kohei Uchimura of Japan, is the first.

Uchimura is the 2008 Beijing silver medalist and enters the 2012 Games as the prohibitive favorite.

How good is Uchimura? He is the three-time world champion, and the silver in 2008 was considered a major disappointment.

He is a perfectionist to the extreme. While many like to cheer for their home nation, everyone should watch and enjoy Uchimura's excellence in his field. It is a rarity to see.

The United States have two members of its team vying for a medal.

John Orozco, a Bronx native, will be a long-shot for a medal but can still offer up some surprising performances. Orozco was part of the unraveling the U.S. did in the team competition. On the vault, he could not land properly and ended up on his butt. Not a good look for the judges.

The American with the best chance to take a medal is Danell Leyva.

Leyva will need to be flawless in order to up end Uchimura, which is something he is capable of doing.

This is the first time in quite some time there has been this much hype around the U.S. men's gymnastics team. If they want to help the gymnastics cause they need to have stellar performances in London. Faltering like they did in the team competition is unacceptable.

The expectations have been lowered after all of the talk prior to the Olympics. Now it is just about performing well and hoping they can stun one of the best male gymnasts of all-time.

Uchimura has all of the pressure on him. He is expected to be perfect, and to come home with the gold—anything less is a failure. That kind of pressure is hard for an athlete to shoulder, especially at the Olympics when you shoulder the hopes of an entire nation.

Orozco and Leyva do not have that pressure, especially after their poor team performance. The lowered expectations and lessened pressure may go a long way in helping their chances in the individual all-around.

The two Americans have more to prove than Uchimura after the team competition, and time will tell if they can have a little bit of redemption. One hopes that it is a thrilling competition with minimal errors so the world knows who comes out on top and who is the best.

It is the Olympics so anything can happen.

Gymnastics is an art form. It all comes down to who paints the best picture for the judges.

It just so happens Leyva is also an artist.