Nastia Liukin to win the Olympic Games

So projects a very detailed analysis of the all-around contenders on a new blog called polish101 – gymnastics:

Predicted Podium

Gold: Nastia Liukin (USA)
Silver: Vanessa Ferrari (Italy)
Bronze: Shawn Johnson (USA)

Some of the rationale:

Only one defending world champion has gone on to win the Olympics (Lilia Podkopayeva) in the last eight Games. (Shawn is defending Champ.)

Nastia will compete Double Twisting Yurchenko in Beijing.

Nastia has a much higher start score on Bars than Shawn.

There’s much, much more. Including projections on which girls (two maximum / country) will be pushed by their nations in the all-around:

Steliana Nistor (Romania)
Jade Barbosa (Brazil)
Jiang Yuyaun (China)
Yang Yilin (China)
Sandra Izbasa (Romania)
Daria Joura (Australia)

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Elizabeth Tweddle (GBR)
Anna Pavlova (Russia)
Yulia Lozechko (Russia)
Hong Su Jong (North Korea)

DEFINITELY check out this excellent post: polish101 – gymnastics

image from Go Nastia Liukin (fan site)

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Blythe on the Gymblog feels that Nastia’s weak apparatus is actually Floor.