Current Gymnasts to Watch
The American stars of the sport right now are:- Rebecca Bross: 2010 US national champion, 2009 world all-around silver medalist
- Bridget Sloan: 2009 world all-around champion
- Alicia Sacramone: 2005 world floor champion, 2010 world vault champion
Foreign gymnasts to watch:
- Aliya Mustafina (Russia): 2010 world all-around champion
- Viktoria Komova (Russia): 2010 Youth Olympics all-around champion
- Ana Porgras (Romania): 2010 world beam champion
- He Kexin (China): 2008 Olympic champion and 2009 world champion on bars
- Beth Tweddle (Great Britain): 2010 and 2006 world champion on bars
- Jiang Yuyuan (China): 2010 world all-around silver medalist
Current Top Teams
- Russia: Before the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Soviet team dominated women’s gymnastics, winning every Olympic team title from 1952-1992 (except in 1984, when the Soviet Union boycotted the Olympics). Now competing as independent republics, Russia has become the strongest nation from the former USSR. The Russians placed third at the 2004 Olympics and 2006 worlds, and won the 2010 world championships.
- The United States: Though the US has only won Olympic gold once as a team (1996), it was the 2003 and 2007 world champion, and the runner-up in the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games.
- China: China won team gold at the 2008 Olympics and at 2006 worlds, and has one of the deepest teams in the world. It also won bronze in the 2000 Olympic Games, but was stripped of its medal after it was discovered that a gymnast on the team was underage.
- Romania: Romania has won five world team titles (1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001), as well as the Olympic titles in both 2000 and 2004. In the past few years, however, a weakened Romanian team has only managed 4th (2006 and 2010 worlds) and 3rd (2007 worlds and 2008 Olympics) place finishes.
