Women's Olympics Gymnastics 2012: Stars Who Must Rebound from Poor Showing

As women's gymnastics is set to wrap up on Friday, a few stars need to come back from disappointing showings early on in the 2012 Olympics.

The individual all-around competition will feature gymnasts from different countries, and one American will be watching instead of competing because of a rule limiting only two gymnasts from each country in the all-around finals.

Although some people may consider Jordyn Wieber as a disappointment, it is not her fault she does not get a chance to compete for an individual gold medal. Her fourth-place finish was not good enough to best her teammates Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman, but she did not have a poor performance. 

Several countries had gymnasts who struggled, but the Russians had stars falter on the biggest stage. Because of the mishaps, three Russian gymnasts need to overcome their struggles and rebound in the all-around and individual event finals.

Ksenia Afanasyeva (Russia)

While the Americans easily won the gold medal, it was the result of several mistakes by the Russians. The Americans would have won gold regardless, but the margin would have been smaller.

Russian gymnast Ksenia Afanasyeva will have a chance to win gold for her individual floor exercise, but it is the same routine that cost her team a shot at gold.

Afanasyeva messed up during her floor routine, and it ended any chance the Russians had. Her final score of 14.333 (full scores provided by NBC Olympics) was good enough for 11th on Tuesday, but her team expected more from her.

She will be a medal contender, so Afanasyeva needed to do well for her team. Instead, she failed to land a dismount.

A silver medal is still impressive, but a good routine from Afansyeva would have kept the pressure on the Americans. Her teammate Anastasia Grishina also messed up on the floor exercise, so it is not all on Afansyeva.

Next Tuesday, Afansyeva will have a chance to redeem herself and upset the Americans on the floor exercise. Americans Raisman and Wieber will be favored to win the gold, but Afansyeva has the ability to shock the world.

Aliya Mustafina (Russia)

Like her teammates, Aliya Mustafina had a disappointing showing on Tuesday. She will have a chance to redeem herself in the individual all-around final.

During the team final, Mustafina struggled to stay on the balance beam. She managed to stay on, but her wobbling affected her score. She received a score of 14.533, but it was one of many disappointments for the Russian team.

She will be competing for gold on bars and floor, so she will need to come out strong. She is a legitimate medal contender on bars. 

Mustafina scored a 15.766 on bars during the team final, and that would have been good for silver in an individual competition. The competition on bars will stiffen, as Elizabeth Tweddle (Great Britain) put up the best score on Tuesday.

If she hopes to win an all-around medal, Mustafina will need to improve on the balance beam and vault. Her beam routine should be much better on Thursday as long as she keeps her balance.

After a disappointing ending to the team's final, she will come out ready to compete for an all-around gold. 

Americans Raisman and Douglas will be difficult to beat in the all-around competition, and teammate Viktoria Komova will also be a challenge to take down.