Well, how do you work into the equation that most of our top coaches are East Block refugees?
Good question (or really, good point).
Way I figure it, Henning, the overwhelming majority of our populace are, or are derived from, "...huddled masses yearning to be free..." so the defection of the various eastern bloc refugees is a natural evolution.
Of course, one cannot ignore the reality that, absent the state-centered training and recruitment regimes from which these various coaches came, the current powerhouses of gymnastics would not exist.
---edit---
Upon further reflection, one other thought:
It always sort of bothers me that athletes from eastern-bloc nations were historically categorized as being some sort of product of a machine- it was often true that the "amateurs" who wore the colors of the various commie countries were anything
but amateurs (in the Army? Spare me!), but at the same time, to perform at the levels they did, they still had to have a burning passion for what they were doing, and all the state-centric brainwashing and heavy-handed promotion in the world cannot create that. At the end, most were still athletically-gifted people, doing something that they loved.
$0.02.