Viktoria Komova is came in second place in the all around behind American Jordyn Wieber at the world championships in Toyko last year. She is known for her elegant dance, flexibility, and difficult bar routine. Some dance skills can be just as difficult as some flips, as you can see in this Gymnastics Gifs image:

She represents the more balletic Soviet style that dominated until the cold war ended. Don't see the connection? While the political world is constantly prattling on about Ronald Reagan triumphing over an evil empire, the gym world is still mourning the end of an era when communism thought it would be capitalism by scouring the countryside for athletic 5-year-olds, taking them from their parents, and teaching them perfect body control all day in what was a kind of Olympic labor camp.

Here Komova is gracefully doing a combination on the beam you don't see that much anymore:

Aliya Mustafina is the 2010 world champion, and she was expected to own the Olympics until she tore her ACL last year. (Photo via Facebook.) She's a fan favorite for her style and competitiveness -- at 2010 worlds, she reassured her coach, "Don’t worry, I will win."

You can see the fan love by the many gifs dedicated to her game face, or as it is admiringly called on the gymternet, her "bitchface." Here's one:

And another, via starkofwinterfell:

Before her injury Mustafina was strong on all four events. With her knee injury, she had lots of time to work on bars. Her dismount is unique, with one-and-a-half twists plus two flips, via Stansastia:

She still winces when she lands some tumbling runs, though.

Anastasia Grishina is another ballerina and could compete for an all-around medal. (Photo via Associated Press.)

China

The 2008 Olympic champions are strong on beam and bars, where they do very difficult tricks in combination -- one after the other -- to earn extra points. They're weak on floor and vault, in part because their most powerful gymnast, Olympic medalist Cheng Fei, recently snapped her Achilles in training. Team members are: Yao Jinnan, Sui Lu, Huang Qiushuang, Deng Linlin, and He Kexin.

He Kexin was the subject of the age controversy in 2008, and she's a perfect illustration of why it was considered cheating to have an illegally young team member. In 2008, He was officially 16, but had told local media that she was 14. She was teeny-tiny, and could flip her body quickly around the bars. Now, at age 18 or 20, she's still tiny compared to an average young woman. But the "puberty fairy," as the gymternet calls it, has given her hips and boobs. Those are great for teenagers who want to pick up dates. They're not great for teenagers who want to twist around in the air. Think about throwing a pencil and an hourglass in the air: which one would spin more times? As she's gotten older, He has gotten less consistent on bars -- she's slower, she falls more, she has less endurance. That's why this year, the 2008 gold medalist barely made the Olympic team. Puberty doesn't doom all gymnasts, but it takes many of them time to get used to their new bodies. Yes, it's terrible, and there will be several handwringing essays on this very topic this summer, guaranteed.