Simone Biles’ post-Olympic show, Gold Over America Tour, is back this autumn and is set to hit 30 cities across the USA starting 17 September in Oceanside, California.
This time, male gymnasts will be participating in the pop concert-style spectacle that showcases the athletic brilliance and championship journeys of Biles and her cast members.
“I think the first time we were very driven on female-forward cast and having the beauty in that and knowing that we can put on a show without the guys and just having the girls being in their feminine power and being beautiful and being the stars,” Biles said ahead of the tour’s announcement on Thursday.
“But this time around we’re like ‘OK, that worked but let’s do it a little bit differently, let’s invite the men.’”
The decorated gymnast will be joined by Olympic medallist Jordan Chiles, six-time All-American Katelyn Ohashi, Jade Carey, Shilese Jones and other star gymnasts, including 2023 World all-around bronze medalist Fred Richard, and silver medallist in men’s vault Casimir Schmidt.
Richard, the youngest American male gymnast ever to win an individual medal at the World Championships, hopes to change the narrative of men’s gymnastics in a country where women have garnered most of the success and the spotlight.
“The goal is to get as many eyes on men’s gymnastics side as possible and have more people understand who we are and what we do,” Richard said. “The dream is that someone walks down the street one day and someone says ‘Name a male gymnast’ and they actually name a male gymnast.”
The 20-year-old is set to make a name for himself as he makes his Olympic debut this summer in Paris. More cast members are to be confirmed in the run-up to the Paris Olympics.
Biles described the show as a “celebration” of gymnastics with decidedly personal elements. Her 2021 tour helped promote the importance of prioritising mental health.
“Obviously, we want to bring the fun, we want to bring like the exhilarating feeling, we want to bring the golden side out of everybody but those touchy subjects or whatever we want to touch on, those will come whenever people get a chance to tell their stories at the Olympics,” she added.
