The Chinese will be hard to beat

Worthy successors to legends ready to provide the thrills

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China owns seven of the last eight men’s World team titles

In the women’s section, the U.S. looks set to emerge team champion

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Always one of the most popular disciplines in the Olympic roster, gymnastics, which has seen some colourful personalities, has provided memorable moments ever since the sport was included into the Games at St. Louis in 1904.

Even as one looks forward to the August 9-19 competitions at the Beijing National indoor stadium, it is hard to resist the temptation to look backwards because the inspiring images of the likes of Larisa Latynina, Olga Korbut, Nadia Comaneci, Viktor Chukarin, Boris Shaklin, Sawao Kato, Nikolai Andrianov and Vitaly Scherbo simply fail to fade away.

All legendary figures provided gymnastics and the Olympic Games with glitz and glamour during their time; creating new benchmarks with difficult and gutsy routines in this sport of tumbles, vaults and falls.

Worthy successors

Fortunately enough, we do have worthy successors to these ever-green superstars, even as the fall in the standards of such powerhouses like Russia and Romania is quite hard to digest. In Beijing, it would be the Chinese, particularly their men gymnasts, who would be hard to beat, given the vast advantage they hold while competing at their own backyard.

Led by the three-time World all-around champion, Yang Wei, the Chinese are the firm favourites for the team gold, having shown their capability at last year’s World championships in Stuttgart winning the title by an astonishing five points.

A huge margin by any account considering the fact that the total team score was made up of only 18 routines.

The fact that China now owns seven of the last eight men’s World team titles indicates the depth of the Chinese squad, which besides Wei comprises Xiao Qin, Zou Kai, Huang Xi, Liang Fuliang and Chen Yibing.

True, the Chinese have a tendency to falter under Olympic pressure, but it is hard to visualise such a surprise in Beijing as they battle it out with Japan, Germany, the United States and South Korea for the top honours.

In the all-around competition, though the defending champion, Paul Hamm (United States) is back after an injury, it could be Wei all the way should he repeat the same form that he displayed in Germany last year.

The Chinese are also likely to pick a lot of medals in the finals of the various apparatuses, though they could face stiff challenge from the likes of Brazil’s Diego Hypolito (floor), Hungary’s Krisztian (pommel horse), Holland’s Yuri van Gelder (rings), Poland’s Leszek Blanik (vault), Slovakia’s Mitja Petkovsek (parallel bars) and Germany’s Fabian Hambuechen (horizontal bars) besides their arch rivals from Japan and the United States and veterans like Jordan Jovtchev.

U.S. women formidable

In the women’s section, it is the United States which looks set to emerge as the team champion though the Chinese have in them the capability to turn things around.

The Americans, having won the title in Stuttgart, would be looking forward to their first Olympic triumph on foreign soil in Beijing. In Shawn Johnson, the U.S., has a popular all-around World champion.

The 16-year-old, having added quite a few nuances to her regular routine, could be a runaway winner of her section against her own teammate Anastasia Liukin, Romania’s Stevlana Nistor, Brazil’s Jade Barbosa and the Chinese duo of Yang Yilin and Xiao Sha.

Though the Americans are capable of winning a medal in each of the apparatuses finals it could well be a touch-and-go affair considering the fact that the Chinese represented by Cheng Fi, He Ning, Jiang Yuyan and Li Shanshan can prove to be quite a handful before an adoring home audience.

With the scoring system having been changed in 2005, Beijing is also set to see the new accumulative points scoring system, which lays emphasis on content and execution rather than daring, in operation.

In essence, you could hardly witness the perfect 10.00 being awarded in Beijing, but the third Olympics in Asia could still have its thrills and frills if the gymnasts get going.