Chow's Gymnastics Coach Already Has Contenders for 2016 Olympic Squad

The London Olympics are a couple months away, but coach Liang Chow is already thinking about the 2016 games, when could produce three members of the U.S. squad competing in Brazil, reports the Des Moines Register.

Gabby Douglas, a favorite to make this year’s Olympic team at age 16, would still be a contender at 20. And Chow has a pair of 12-year-olds who recently tied for third in the all-around at the Junior Olympic nationals.

Norah Flatley of Wisconsin won gold in the balance beam en route to a total score of 37.675. Alexis Vasquez of California earned silver for her floor exercise routine while reaching the same overall score, the Register said.

Flatley has been training with Chow for two years and was the Level 9 national champion a year ago.

“Norah, she brought up a lot of memories for me of training (2008 gold medalist Shawn Johnson),” he told the newspaper. “Shawn was like a machine. When she was in the gym, she was just going, going and going. Norah has lots of similarities."

Vasquez has been with Chow for only a year, but impressed him immediately.

“She is a tremendous, talented athlete, very beautiful form,” Chow told the Register. “Personality-wise, she is much more serious, and she’s much more hard on herself. She’s looking for perfection every single time.”

The next step for the gymnasts — who are training 25 hours a week at Chow’s Gymnastics — is to enter Junior International Elite competitions. There, the judging isn’t based on the traditional 10.0 scale but rather the new Olympic standards, in which routines are awarded points based on difficulty and the envelope is constantly being pushed.