Fall in love with the faces of USA Gymnastics

She might as well be known as Queen B because she is about to take over the world. When I say that Simone Biles is a favorite to lead Team USA to a team gold and win the all-around individual gold, it’s almost a lock. She’s that good.

At the World Championships, she has won three consecutive all-around gold medals and 14 total medals in three years. The crazy thing about Biles is that she might walk away with five medals from Rio when it is all said and done.

She was too young to join the Team USA in London, but there is no doubt she will be making an impact in Brazil.

Oh captain, my captain. Aside from being the team’s unofficial barber, Chris Brooks was named the leader of the USA men’s gymnastics team despite being rookie to the Olympic experience. It’s been a long road to the games for Brooks, who is 29 but has competed with the United States since he was 13.

In that time, he’s gotten 10 surgeries and lost his dad to a tragic car accident in 2008. That kind of toughness and grind-it-out attitude can be the driving force that Team USA needs for a medal. Look for the oldest U.S. Olympic gymnast since 1972 to do his damage in the horizontal bar event.

You know what’s better than having the No. 1 gymnast on your team? Having the No. 1 AND No. 2 gymnasts on your team. Gabby Douglas finished behind Simone Biles in the 2015 World Championships, but she still has more Olympic experience. And what an Olympics that was in 2012.

There are a lot of talented gymnasts at the Olympics, but not a lot of them have elements named after them. According to the Men’s Gymnastics Code of Points, a “Dalton” is a backward roll with a half turn tuck to hang performed on the parallel bars. Dalton originally performed the element at the 2015 World Challenge Cup in Doha, Qatar.

Dalton may have an element to his name, but he doesn’t have a medal. He was a part of the 2012 London team that failed to capitalize on its blistering qualification round finish. Dalton will be asked to compete in multiple events, but his best is the floor exercise.

If Douglas is the defending champion and Biles is the champion in waiting, Hernandez is the next big thing. The bubbly Hernandez is known for her spunky personality on the floor routine, where she explodes off the ground and flashes that million-dollar smile. However, she’s shown she can do a lot more.

The “Human Emoji,” as she’s known, finished third in the individual all-around behind Biles and teammate Aly Raisman at the National Championships, and placed second in the same event at the Olympic Trials behind Biles. An unfortunate numbers game left Hernandez off the individual all-around roster at the Olympics despite her accolades and talent, but she will still be available to help Team USA secure the team gold.

An athlete’s journey to the Olympics are rarely smooth, even for someone who has been to one before. Leyva was a part of the team at the London Games and even earned a bronze medal in the all-around individual event. However, he was unable to perform at the qualification meets for Rio 2016 and was named as an alternate on the team.

However, a torn ACL suffered by John Orozco allowed Leyva to join the team and compete for more hardware. Leyva is known for his acrobatic work on the horizontal and parallel bars. But the bars can be a fickle mistress. The horizontal bar once betrayed him when he went chin first into the bar during the 2011 World Championships. However, he was able to recover and win a gold medal in parallel bars at the same meet.

Even on the best teams, specialists are still needed in order for the unit to thrive.  Kocian is the specialist that Team USA needs. The Texas native and UCLA-bound gymnast is a master at the uneven bars, earning a gold medal at the World Championships in 2015 in a four-way tie for first. She didn’t always have it easy, though.

Kocian has fought back from a wrist injury in 2012 that knocked her out from competing for three months. She then delayed surgery on the same wrist in order to compete at the World Championships in 2014, where she earned her stripes and made a reputation for being a big-time athlete on the world stage.

Another holdover from the 2012 London Games, Mikulak seemed destined to be a gymnast from birth. I mean, what else are you supposed to do when both of your parents were gymnasts? You’re definitely not going to be competing in croquet.

While Chris Brooks is the captain of this team, Mikulak may be its best athlete. He has won four consecutive all-around national championships and could be in the running for an all-around medal at the 2016 Olympics.

At 22 years old, Raisman is the oldest member of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team. Of course, being the oldest doesn’t mean you're immune of your share of ribbing. “Grandma Aly,” as the rest of the team knows her, has a knack for saying the right things at the right time. Gabby Douglas noted that it was Raisman who calmed her down before she competed on the balance beam during the team final.

It is that kind of leadership that got her named team captain for this Olympics. However, she can do more than talk the talk. Raisman is the defending gold medalist in the floor routine and has a bronze medal to her name from the 2012 London Olympics on the balance beam. Looks like grandma has some game.

The pommel horse event was a huge issue for the USA during 2012. You know what is not a huge issue for Naddour? Dominating the pommel horse. Nationally, he is one of the best pommel horse specialists of all time, winning four of the last five gold medals in the event at the P&G Gymnastics Championships. Now he will be competing in the Rio Olympics after serving as an alternate in 2012.

During the Olympic Trials this year, Naddour’s wife washed his uniform with the same detergent that she used for the baby clothes. He used that as a reminder to focus on why he was competing and what he was competing for: family.