US women gymnasts expect high at London

LONDON - American women's gymnastics team, pearheaded by reigning world all-around champion Jordyn Wieber, is well positioned to prevail at the London Olympic Games.

US women's team coach Liang Chow gave credit to his gymnasts in the London Games. "Our gymnasts are all in good form so far. As the reigning world champions, we're posed to win it again here, but I won't rule out the challenges from China, Russia and Romania," said Chow, a former Chinese national gymnast, Tuesday after supervising the team training at the North Greenwich Arena.

"Now in the final, all three gymnasts need to be counted on and no team can afford mistakes, so you can't say who'll be the winners early. We're in a good place to maintain our momentum from the world championship at least," added Chow.

Wieber, without doubt, is the hottest name in women's gymnastics as the reigning world all-around champion, who also won the gold medal in all-around for the third straight year at the American Cup in March. She also captured the Pacific Rim Championships in May.

"In the all-around event, we're inclined to stand out," said Chow. "For the singles apparatus, we're competitive on vault and floor exercise. All these disciplines are regarded as the winning edge for us, but we don't set specific target on how many golds we need to win. First of all, the team victory is much favored for us."

A strong overall performance by Wieber could lead to a gold medal for the US women's team at the London Olympics.

To Wieber, it's not a time to relax, but to gear up and get tuned to the biggest arena of her career. "I have to work just as hard as everyone else," Wieber said. "I don't really get to take a break just because I did well at world championships. I just have to keep pushing myself and work just as hard as I did for worlds."

Only three US women have been Olympic all-around champions, consisting of Mary Lou Retton in 1984, Carly Patterson in 2004 and Nastia Liukin in 2008.

Wieber has built a reputation as a strong and tough competitor with an uncanny ability to perform under pressure. She plans to put those attributes to good use in London.

Liang Chow, who is the personal coach of the 2008 Olympic gold medalist, Shawn Johnson, is the coach of 2012 Olympic competitor, Gabrielle Douglas.

Chow was on China's national gymnastics team for more than a decade, winning international and national medals.

He came to the United States in 1990 and in 1998, he and his wife Liwen Zhuang moved to West Des Moines, Iowa and opened Chow's Gymnastics and Dance Institute.

He accepted an English scholarship and a coaching position at the University of Iowa.