Long dominated by Russia, rhythmic gymnastics is on the rise in the USA

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TOKYO (AP) In the darker days of the pandemic, Evita Griskenas was stuck practicing in her parents’ basement in Illinois, occasionally breaking light bulbs as she threw clubs and hoops in the air and wheeled to catch them.

A song she had never heard began to play. Griskenas, a rhythmic gymnast, does not hear the music as much as she sees it: the melodies become hoops that spin on the floor; the drumbeats bounce like balls. This song was wild, like ribbons whipping in the wind.

Often the forgotten genre of Olympic gymnastics, its sport resembles the combination of its more famous cousin, artistic gymnastics practiced by superstars like Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee, with ballet and a circus. Gymnasts dance, throwing and catching objects, hoops, balls, ribbons, a pair of clubs bending and twisting on a mat so quickly that it is often impossible for the untrained eye to comprehend its complexity.

In her parents’ basement, Griskenas danced to this odd song and as it ended with a thundering saw from a violin, she struck a pose.

It’s an Olympic-quality song, she remembers thinking: I can imagine myself in Tokyo, hearing it like the final du-dun!

Now when she thinks about that moment, she becomes emotional because it will soon become a reality: Griskenas is part of the first full rhythmic gymnastics team the United States has ever sent to the Olympics. She is one of two individual performers to qualify to compete this weekend, with a five-woman squad performing perfectly in sync. In the sport dominated since its inception by Russia, rhythmic gymnasts in the Americas say they hope their increased presence in Tokyo could mark a turning point for the sport at home, where they are often dismissed as twirlers and hula hoopers.

Have been here making history, said five-woman team member Lili Mizuno who says there is so much to their performances, she thinks if people see it they will fall in love. There is so much going on every second. You can slow down the video and still have so much to watch.

Turning the nearly 6 meters long satin ribbon, for example, requires keeping the wrists in constant movement. They roll the balls and hoops around their body. They throw the clubs in the air and then stunt across the 40-foot competition field to catch them just as they fall. Point deductions are taken for a lost throw, a capricious ribbon, a missed catch.

It is meant to look effortless, but to achieve this they trained all day everyday for months.

We think we deserve more spotlight than we get, said team member Camilla Feeley. People in the United States just don’t understand what the sport is.

Feeley calls herself the Hoop Bearer because she enjoys wearing all six hoops when traveling. As they took off for Tokyo, she said, a flight attendant attempted to stop her.

I was going to the Olympics, I need this by my side all the time, Feeley told the attendant. She considers the hoops to be her children and feels incomplete without their weight in her hand, so she negotiates to get them on board: they’re just confused. I’m sure it’s not every day that they have rhythmic gymnasts on their planes.

Most of their equipment has to be ordered from abroad. Their rhythmic gymnastics specific slippers because the toes are covered but heel left bare cost around $ 30 a pair, and they can get over them in a week or two, depending on the roughness of the competition mat. Sometimes, to avoid buying new ones, they patch them up with medical tape.

Full coverage: 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Their counterparts in other countries are often shocked to learn that they are not being paid. They receive some support, but nowhere near the cost of training, travel and equipment.

Don’t even get me started on leotards, Mizuno said. They are mainly made by seamstresses in Russia, where rhythmic gymnastics is a very popular sport. They are so covered in crystals that they can weigh up to 10 pounds and cost thousands of dollars.

Their families made extraordinary sacrifices so that they could practice this sport.

Mizunos’ parents and two brothers moved with her from California to Illinois so that she could work out in the best gym in the country. Sometimes they couldn’t afford the cost, and her mother would spend months sewing toed shoes and leotards so they didn’t have to buy them in Russia. Sometimes Mizuno wore clothes from his teammates.

Feeley’s mother also moved with her to Illinois from Maryland, so she could work out at the same gym.

American rhythmic gymnasts will often learn in Russia, where the sport has a strong infrastructure absent in the United States.

In the United States, we were slowly and gradually building this, said veteran Laura Zeng, who competed in the 2016 Games and is returning to Tokyo. But it takes time and money, so we go to Russia to train, to learn from them.

She was there last spring, about to head to the gym when they announced that the United States was closing their border due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and she had to find a flight and go home all. right now.

Everyone was on tiptoe, unsure of what was going to happen next, she said. For three months, they couldn’t go to the gym. They tried to practice Zoom in their basements and living rooms. It’s hard to start clubs in basements and bedrooms; the bulbs were broken, months of training wasted.

But rhythmic gymnasts are used to being adaptable, Zeng said: For example, they need to factor in the power of arena air conditioners into their routines, as a hard blowing system can derail their ribbons flutter.

That’s a good metaphor for the pandemic: everything was changing and we had to go with the flow, Zeng said.

Their sport is emotional, many describe it as telling a story to the audience and they feed off how the crowd absorbs it. But there won’t be any in Tokyo.

I don’t think anyone will have a hard time getting that adrenaline pumping because of what it means to be an Olympian, Zeng said. Everyone knows what this honor is, so everyone carried this beautiful knowledge on our shoulders. So when we come out, we will have that power with us.

Many American rhythmic gymnasts don’t water down their chances of winning.

Certainly probably not, laughs Mizuno. The team barely qualified for the Olympics, squeaking in the lineup by a small margin. It’s almost a miracle that we can be here right now right now.

Individual and collective performers will compete in qualifying on Friday and Saturday morning, followed by the individual final on Saturday evening and the collective final on Sunday. The Russians seemingly remain unbeatable, and until the United States invests more in their sport, they are unlikely to reach a podium, many American athletes have recognized.

But they’re determined to make the most of it to spark interest in rhythmic gymnastics, which is evolving in ways they believe might appeal to an American audience.

It has historically been performed to classical music; its origin involved a live pianist accompanying the fingerboard gymnast. But the rules have loosened to allow songs with words, and some gymnasts are incorporating genres like hip hop, techno, and mainstream pop songs.

One of the group’s performances this year will be a techno remix of Bon Jovis Its my Life, a decidedly American song, Mizuno said.

They dream of a day when rhythmic gymnastics will be pretty well known in the United States, people on planes will stop confusing their rubber-tipped clubs with bowling pins.

The United States has finally started to back us up, Griskenas said with a laugh. Or maybe I should use a rhythmic gymnastics pun: we sneaked around in batons. Here we are.

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