Gymnastics is one of the original Olympic events and has been contested at every modern Olympics. Artistic gymnastics was the original form and women started competing in 1928. Rhythmic gymnastics was added in 1984 and trampoline was added in 2000. The Men’s program took on it’s current form in 1932 and remains unchanged since then. The women’s form reached it’s current look in 1960. The Us trails only the Soviet Union in medals in artistic gymnastics having won 95 medals and 30 golds. The US has never medaled in rhythmic gymnastics or trampoline.
The Team:
This year’s team is made up of six men and seven women. Only one of the competitors, Jonathan Horton, has been to the Olympics before.
Links are to twitter accounts for the athletes.
USA Gymnastics
Men:
Jake Dalton – Artistic
Jonathan Horton* – Artistic
Danell Leyva – Artistic
Sam Mikulak – Artistic
John Orozco – Artistic
Steven Gluckstein – Trampoline
Women:
Gabrielle Douglas – Artistic
McKayla Maroney – Artistic
Alexandra Raisman – Artistic
Kyla Ross – Artistic
Jordyn Wieber – Artistic
Julie Zetlin – Rhythmic
Savannah Vinsant – Trampoline
* – Was part of team in Beijing
Schedule:
Artistic gymnastics will start with a qualification round where the team’s individuals will compete on all the apparatus. This will qualify eight teams for the team final, 24 gymnasts for the individual all-around final, and eight athletes per apparatus for the individual apparatus finals. The team final will see only three members per team compete on each apparatus. The qualification day is obviously most important for individuals trying to get into the finals for their events, while the top teams should be fairly safe to make the team final.
Rhythmic gymnastics starts with all individuals competing in a qualification round each taking their turn on the four apparatus. After this round only the top 10 move on the final. In the final they will compete on each apparatus again and the best combined score wins.
Trampoline gymnastics starts with a qualification round with two routines. The first routine is restricted in difficulty and aims for execution. The second routine is where the competitors can show off the most difficult moves. The top eight combined scores from the two routines will advance to the final. In the final there is a routine of ten skills that will provide the final scores.
All Times ET
Saturday July 28th
6 AM – Men’s Artistic Gymnastics – Qualification – Subdivision 1
10:30 AM – Men’s Artistic Gymnastics – Qualification – Subdivision 2
3 PM – Men’s Artistic Gymnastics – Qualification – Subdivision 3
Sunday July 29th
4:30 AM – Women’s Artistic Gymnastics – Qualification – Subdivision 1
6:15 AM – Women’s Artistic Gymnastics – Qualification – Subdivision 2
9:45 AM – Women’s Artistic Gymnastics – Qualification – Subdivision 3
11:30 AM – Women’s Artistic Gymnastics – Qualification – Subdivision 4
3 PM – Women’s Artistic Gymnastics – Qualification – Subdivision 5
Monday July 30th
11:30 AM – Men’s Artistic Gymnastics – Team Final
Tuesday July 31st
11:30 AM – Women’s Artistic Gymnastics – Team Final
Wednesday August 1st
11:30 AM – Men’s Artistic Gymnastics – Individual All-Around
Thursday August 2nd
11:30 AM – Women’s Artistic Gymnastics – Individual All-Around
Friday August 3rd
9 AM – Men’s Trampoline Gymnastics – Qualification
10:35 AM – Men’s Trampoline Gymnastics – Final
Saturday August 4th
9 AM – Women’s Trampoline Gymnastics – Qualification
10:35 AM – Women’s Trampoline Gymnastics – Final
Sunday August 5th
9 AM – Men’s Artistic Gymnastics – Floor Exercise Final
9:50 AM – Women’s Artistic Gymnastics – Vault Final
10:41 AM – Men’s Artistic Gymnastics – Pommel Horse Final
Monday August 6th
9 AM – Men’s Artistic Gymnastics – Rings Final
9:50 AM – Women’s Artistic Gymnastics – Uneven Bars Final
10:41 AM – Men’s Artistic Gymnastics – Vault Final
Tuesday August 7th
9 AM – Men’s Artistic Gymnastics – Parallel Bars Final
9:47 AM – Women’s Artistic Gymnastics – Balance Beam Final
10:37 AM – Men’s Artistic Gymnastics – Horizontal Bar Final
11:23 AM – Women’s Artistic Gymnastics – Floor Exercise Final
Thursday August 9th
7 AM – Women’s Rhythmic Gymnastics – Individual All-Around – Qualification – Rotation 1
8:18 AM – Women’s Rhythmic Gymnastics – Individual All-Around – Qualification – Rotation 2
Friday August 10th
7 AM – Women’s Rhythmic Gymnastics – Individual All-Around – Qualification – Rotation 3
8:18 AM – Women’s Rhythmic Gymnastics – Individual All-Around – Qualification – Rotation 4
Saturday August 11th
8:30 AM – Women’s Rhythmic Gymnastics – Individual All-Around – Final – Rotation 1
9:03 AM – Women’s Rhythmic Gymnastics – Individual All-Around – Final – Rotation 2
9:37 AM – Women’s Rhythmic Gymnastics – Individual All-Around – Final – Rotation 3
10:10 AM – Women’s Rhythmic Gymnastics – Individual All-Around – Final – Rotation 4
Past Results:
The men’s team has the only returning competitor, Jonathan Horton, who was the leading competitor for the men in Beijing. Horton led the US team to a 3rd place finish and the bronze medal and then finished 9th in the individual all-around and won a silver on the horizontal bar.
At the 2011 World Championships the US won the bronze medal, narrowly missing out on the silver by just .01 points. China was a strong 1st, but it showed the US has a real chance to improve on their bronze medal from Beijing. John Orozco might be this year’s Horton. He finished 5th in the individual all-around at the world championship, the 2nd best American being Danell Leyva finishing 24th. Horton narrowly missed out on the individual all-around, finishing 5th in the world in the qualification round, but behind Leyva and Orozco. Jake Dalton made the floor final and finished 9th, Horton made the rings final, finishing 7th, and John Orozco made the horizontal bar final, finishing 8th. Danell Leyva won the US a gold when he won the parallel bars final.
Steven Gluckstein will be looking to improve on 2008 when the men’s trampoline competitor for the United States finished in 15th place.
The women’s team brings back no competitors from Beijing and has big shoes to fill considering the remarkable success that was found there. The US women at Beijing won the silver in the team event and took the top two spots in the indvidual all-around (Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson). Johnson and Liukin also went one-two in the balance beam and two-there in the floor event. Liukin also added a silver in the uneven bars. The eight medals followed six medals in Athens, but just one in Sydney. The good news for the US is that the women’s team is the defending all-around champion at the world championship. They also won the individual all-around (Jordyn Wieber) and vault (McKayla Maroney). Wieber also won the bronze in the balance beam and Alexandra Raisman won the bronze in the floor excercise. Raisman was a point out of the bronze in the individual all-around and had narrowly qualified for the event over Gabrielle Douglas. The competition for the two-per country spots in the individual all-around on both the men’s and women’s teams will make the qualification round very important and exciting in London. It will take a strong effort to match the eight medals from Beijing, but don’t put it past this incredibly talented group.
The US was unable to qualify a rhythmic gymnast in 2008 and finished 15th in 2004. Julie Zetlin finished 35th in the qualification at the World Championship. In trampoline the Us finished 13th in Beijing and 14th in Athens. Both Zetlin in the rhythmic competition and Savannah Vinsant in the trampoline competition will be seeking the first medal for the US in those disciplines.
