Rio 2016: Great Britain Women's Gymnastics Olympic Team preview

After a breakout last four years including a sixth place finish at the London 2012 games and a bronze medal at last year's world championships in Glasgow, Great Britain is poised to take another step towards becoming a gymnastics powerhouse.

The Great Britain Women's Gymnastics Olympic Team is compromised of 2014 Commonwealth Games all-around champion and reigning national champion Claudia Fragapane, two-time European bars champion Becky Downie, European Championships vault and floor silver medalist Ellie Downie, 2015 British national champion Amy Tinkler, and 2014 Commonwealth all-around silver medalist Ruby Harrold.

Past team results

At the last Olympic games, the London 2012 Olympic Games on home soil, Great Britain produced a breakout sixth place team finish, upsetting Italy to make history. Four years later at this Olympics, Team GB will look to improve upon the 2012's team results with a brand new team of first-time Olympians.

At the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, once again on home soil in Glasgow, the Brits produced another shock performance with all five of the gymnasts on this Olympic team, receiving a bronze medal and upsetting traditional gymnastics powerhouse Russia to win third.

Most recently at this year's European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships, the last major international team competition before Rio, Great Britain upset the odds once again, winning silver just behind Russia with four of the five Olympic team members with Tinkler missing. After the second place finish a month ago in Bern, expectations are high for the Brits looking to cement their place amongst the gymnastics elite.

Amy Tinkler performs on the floor exercise at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow/Getty Images

Projected qualifications and team final lineups

For Great Britain, a very explosive and powerful team filled with depth, unlike most countries there is not really one standout weak event. While balance beam has sometimes proven to be a struggle for Team GB, the depth on their team should be enough to put up three very solid routines on each event for team finals to contend for a medal.

On vault, the clear standout is reigning European vault silver medalist Ellie Downie and reigning British national champion Amy Tinkler. Joining Ellie Downie and Tinkler in qualifications will be Claudia Fragapane and Ruby Harrold, as Becky Downie, the younger of the two sisters, does not compete on vault and floor. In team finals, expect Fragapane to get the nod over Harrold due to her experience and Harrold to sit out the team final on vault.

On uneven bars, another very strong event for Great Britain, reigning European bars champion Becky Downie leads the way along with another bars specialist Ruby Harrold and Ellie Downie and Fragapane rounding out the qualifications lineup with the latter sitting out the team final.

Becky Downie performs on the uneven bars at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow/Getty Images

On balance beam, most likely Great Britain's weakest event, Becky and Ellie Downie will lead the way along with Fragapane, with Tinkler filling in the remaining qualifications spot and missing the team final.

Lastly on floor exercise, an event Becky Downie does not compete, Fragapane, Ellie Downie, Tinkler, and Harrold will obviously go in qualifications with Team GB most likely opting to use Tinkler over Harrold in the team final along with Fragapane and Ellie Downie.

What to expect from Great Britain?

With the depth of Great Britain, advancing to the team finals is a bit of a given. Assuming nothing goes drastically wrong in qualifications, the Brits should have a fairly easy road to the team final. In the team final, a medal finish is certainly possible, with Russia having looked far from the 2012 team that won silver four years ago.

If Great Britain can maximize their bars and floor scores and survive balance beam, there becomes a legitimate shot at a bronze medal finish but Russia would have to significantly falter for that to happen.

Overall, if Russia is able to compete the way they normally do and there are no falls, Russia should lock up a silver or bronze medal along with China, leaving Great Britain fourth, still a very big accomplishment for such a new gymnastics powerhouse.

In the all-around, assuming Team GB goes with Fragapane and Ellie Downie for the all-around over Tinkler, Fragapane and Downie have a realistic shot at a top 10 finish and if they hit their routines in the all-around final they both could finish top 10, something that would be a historic moment for British gymnastics.