Simone Biles leads US gymnasts headlining ‘victory lap’ Gold Over America Tour
Sep 21, 2024, 8:25 AM
Simone Biles, of the United States, celebrates after winning the gold medal during the women's artistic gymnastics all-around finals in Bercy Arena at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024, in Paris, France. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
(CNN) — Some of the world’s elite athletes are swapping the vault, pommel horse and the uneven bars for the stage floor in a dramatic fusion of sports and entertainment.
Led by 11-time Olympic medalist Simone Biles, a team featuring some of the biggest names in American gymnastics have embarked on a tour around the United States for a “high-energy and high-flying, gymnastics-meets-pop-concert spectacle.”
The Gold Over America Tour sees its performers display an array of improbable aerial feats and the athletic ability that has taken several members of the group to glory on the Olympic stage.
Biles said in a press release that she is “so excited” and described the tour as “a victory lap around the US.”
“It’s more of a celebration tour,” Biles told CNN’s Coy Wire ahead of the tour’s upcoming fourth show in San Jose on Saturday. “Not just for us gymnasts, but for the audience as well because we’re all celebrating our big wins over in Paris, so to bring us all in one place and get to tour America, there’s no better way.”
She added that she was eager “to share the love and passion that we have for gymnastics with everybody in the crowd.”
Biles added three more Olympic gold medals to her tally in Paris earlier this year, winning the team, individual all-around and vault events and taking silver in the floor exercise.
The tour consists of 32 arena shows and got underway on Monday in Oceanside, California. It headed to Phoenix on Wednesday, where members of the cast were welcomed into the city’s Footprint Arena by Phoenix Mercury basketball stars Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner and Kahleah Copper.
Biles and co. visited Los Angeles on Friday, with the next leg of the tour scheduled to take place in San Jose on Saturday.
The tour will stop in cities such as Denver, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta and Orlando and conclude in Detroit on November 3.
The lineup features many of Biles’ national teammates, such as Jordan Chiles – who is currently appealing a decision that cost her a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics – Jade Carey, Hezly Rivera and Joscelyn Roberson.
“We don’t have to get judged on every event!” Chiles told CNN’s Wire when asked about the biggest difference between the tour and competition. “There’s no numbers, there’s nothing like that. I think it’s really just us having fun and really bringing our personalities out. There are a bunch of different personalities on this tour.”
Paul Juda, Brody Malone and Frederick Richard are among those representing Team USA’s male competitors.
Canada’s Peng-Peng Lee and Ellie Black, France’s Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos and Casimir Schmidt of the Netherlands make up the cast’s international contingent.
This is the second Gold Over America Tour that Biles has led. The inaugural iteration of the event took place in 2021 and was an all-woman tour designed to inspire the next generation of female athletes. This year’s tour, though, sees male athletes join the cast for the first time.
Biles described the camaraderie between the athletes as a “brother and sisterhood” and added that she was looking forward to working with gymnasts that she does not normally cross paths with.
The tour has been referred to by its acronym “GOAT,” more than likely a nod to Biles’ legendary standing in professional gymnastics. Part of warmup for a recent involved a spot of “goat yoga,” which saw Biles and Chiles balance a live goat on their backs.
