Day 16: Dream Team of Six Gymnasts

Oooh, I've been waiting for this one. This is hard, because there are way more than six gymnasts that I like. But here goes:

Aliya Mustafina (UB, FX)
No one competing in gymnastics today can match Aliya's determination and drive. At the 2010 Worlds she won a gold in the Team final and the AA final, and qualified to all four event finals (3 silvers). At the 2011 European Championships she tore her ACL and strained her MCL. Most athletes take years to recover, and even then do not return to the highest level. However, 18 months later, Aliya left the 2012 Olympics as the most decorated Russian gymnast, with 4 medals.

 

 

Cheng Fei (VT, FX, BB)



If Aliya has drive and determination, Cheng has passion. She was World Vault Champion from 2005-2007, and also won a gold medal on floor and in the team final in 2006. She is the most decorated female gymnast in Chinese history, and would most likely have made an apperance in London had she not injured her Achilles tendon in June.

 



He Kexin (UB)
He is only good on bars, but not only did she win gold in Beijing, she also defended with a silver medal in London. Many were disappointed in China's decision to place He on the team over her teammate Jiang Yuyuan, but He proved her worth by performing well for China in the team final, as well as the aforementioned silver in the UB final.

 

Ksenia Afanasyeva (BB, FX)

Afan was the only member of Team Russia in London was also there in Beijing. She remembers the team going home without any medals - an unthinkable thing for Russia. She was the World Floor Champion in 2011, but most of her work for Team Russia is pushed to the background in favor of stars like Viktoria Komova and Aliya Mustafina. But Afan is a solid beam and floor performer, and adds a lot of experience to the Russian team.

 

 



Sandra Izbasa (FX, VT)

Sandra is one of my all-time favorites. Not only is she an amazing gymnast (Olympic Floor Champion 2008 & Vault Champion 2012), but she is always so elegant and classy. She conducts herself very well, and whenever she wins a medal, she always seems so suprised and grateful, not like she was expecting it. Even after her fall in the 2012 Floor final, she was still smiling, and she said she wanted to show that "a real champion smiles no matter what".

 

 

Viktoria Komova (UB, BB)

Vika is sometimes inconsistent and always emotional, but hey - she's Russian, and the Russians never hide their emotions. If they are upset, they'll show it. Vika didn't have the spectacular Olympics everyone was expecting - she got silver in the All-Around, but hit her feet on the low bar in the UB event final, and fell of the beam in the BB final, placing last. However, she was the AA champion at the YOG in 2010, and she also won silver in the AA & Gold in the UB final in 2011 in Tokyo.

 

 

This is one AWESOME team. If you take their scores in the Team Final from 2012 (Cheng Fei in 2008), you get a total of 183.564; this would have been a bronze medal in 2008 and a silver medal (by .032 points) in 2012. It would also have been a gold medal at Worlds in 2011, 2010, and 2006, and a silver in 2007.