It's not a lack of exposure that holds the US back in rhythmic gymnastics. If you look at the recent Olympics, Americans dominated or at least seriously challenged in a vast variety of sports that never see the light of day in the US. Look no further than the US women's volleyball team, for instance. The silver-medal winning team, which was heavily favored to win gold, is made entirely of squad members who play in non-US clubs in their professional careers. They do not get the support back home for their sport, but it doesn't stop them from excelling. Americans are, by nature, extremely jockish. The idea of doing well in sports appeals to a number of ingrained elements in the American psyche, and even sports that get little exposure in the country can and do attract the best and grittiest Americans.
So why the lack of success in rhythmic gymnastics for the US? There are a few reasons, but top among them, in my opinion: biased/corrupt judging in the past. To succeed, one had to have the European look. To have the European look, one had to be European. In the entire history of the sport, only 4 non-European countries have ever medaled in the team or individual all-around in rhythmic gymnastics. That's 8 medals out of 197. The only time a non-European competitor won a medal in the individual all-around was during the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, which was boycotted by the Soviet Bloc countries (Canada won that one, making it the first, last and only time North America won a major medal in the sport). Americans had very little incentive to compete in the sport on an international level. Those who did find the motivation got nowhere fast, which meant they were unable to build off their success and start a legacy.
And let's not forget, rhythmic gymnastics is also a very new sport. The first world championships in the sport were held in 1963. The individual all-around was introduced to the Olympics in 1984 (yes, the Soviet boycott Olympics, ironic!). The group competition wasn't an Olympic event until 1996! All this makes rhythmic gymnastics a newer Olympic sport than even ice dancing. This means that there is far less time for the expertise and heritage of rhythmic gymnastics to spread and travel around the world to places such as the US.
And ice dancing is a good comparison for rhythmic gymnastics. It's also another judged aesthetic and musical sport that has been dominated by Europeans, with North Americans virtually shut out of it for most of its history. That, of course, completely changed recently. And what made the change? The code of points! By removing a lot of the ingrained bias out of the judging, and forcing judges to focus, in large part, on defined technical aspects of the sport, Americans finally found their way in. You give those Americans a road map to athletic success, and no matter how uphill it is, we will climb it!
Well, guess what? Rhythmic gymnastics also has its own code of points now, with almost every aspect of judging the sport carefully laid out. This is a relatively new development, and it hasn't borne fruit for Americans yet. But then the adoption of the COP in ice dancing didn't immediately lead to American success in the discipline either. So I say give it time. There are bound to be enterprising rhythmic gymnastics coaches/experts in the US who came from Europe who could show Americans the way, now that there is a way.
The COP in RG has already opened the door for non-European competitors in the individual all-around. Son Yeon Jae, whom I've talked about quite a bit in my previous posts, came just a few fraction of a point from winning bronze at the Olympics. She would've had she not dropped both her clubs during her club routine. Had she medaled, she'd be the first non-European individual competitor to medal in RG in a non-boycotted games. At this rate, it's almost inevitable that she will break through sooner or later, as she is only 18.
Oh, and fun fact about Son Yeon Jae, she is a star back in South Korea, where her unlikely success in a sport previously unfamiliar to South Koreans, coupled with her good looks, rather puts her in mind of another Korean athletic superstar. And just like Yuna Kim, Son Yeon Jae appears in a wide variety of commercials before the Olympics. Here she is in
a deliriously cute ice cream commercial where she barely does anything related to her sport (her notoriety is apparently so great there's no need to remind people what she does). Here she is in
an air conditioner commercial with a Korean swimmer, a commercial that came out over a year ago.
