LOS ANGELES — When Simone Biles won her first world championship in 2013, her agent at the time asked her a seminal question: What did she hope to accomplish in the sport of gymnastics?
Olympic gold medals may have come up, but one of the wish list items Biles remembers most fondly was a long-held desire to have her own tour across the U.S.
Like many of her goals, it has come to fruition in spectacular fashion.
In the decade since she first pondered her aspirations in the sport, Biles has won 11 Olympic medals and 30 world championship medals, making her the most decorated gymnast in history. After her tour de force showing at the Paris Olympics this summer, she is making the rounds to 30 American cities to connect and celebrate with the fans who cheered her to greatness from home.
It’s called the Gold Over America Tour, which can be abbreviated, appropriately, as “GOAT.”
“It’s really about sharing that love and passion for the sport with the audience,” Biles said backstage before Friday’s Los Angeles show. “As well as doing a celebration tour after the Olympics, because we put so much into what we do and we’ve trained for so many years, it’s time for us to have a little bit of fun.”
Typically home to the NBA’s Lakers, the hallways of Crypto.com Arena were teeming with bouncy young gymnasts doing handstands and cartwheels in the aisles before the show.
Biles twisted and flipped with her usual finesse and was accompanied by an entourage of Olympians performing gravity-defying dance breaks that would give the Laker Girls a run for their money. Stars of the Paris Games like Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey tumbled in synchronization, as well as international icons of the sport and members of the history-making U.S. men’s Olympic team.
“Our goal is to entertain the crowd,” Olympic bronze medalist Frederick Richard said. “I think they will be entertained, they will have laughs and feel inspired. The goal is that maybe they want to join gymnastics because it’s really fun. They see what we do and want to become us one day.”
The cast synergized high-energy choreography and gymnastics set to hits by Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, but perhaps the most entertaining moment of the night was the men’s team’s ode to “I’m Just Ken” from the “Barbie” movie that took theaters by storm last year.
It’s an apt comparison.
For most of the sport’s history in the U.S., the women’s team has been Barbie, amassing the bulk of the medals and attention, while the men’s team tended to be relegated to its shadows.
Fresh off their first Olympic team medal since 2008, the Kens of American gymnastics just about stole the show.
The sharper focus on performance quality rather than the tricks themselves is less common in men’s gymnastics, but every athlete onstage committed to the bit. Brody Malone and Paul Juda noted how strange it felt to do gymnastics in front of tens of thousands of people without feeling the pressure to chase perfection.
“In competitions, I’m super serious,” Malone said. “I don’t really talk that much, barely even smile, to be honest. But this is just fun, and I get to jump around, dance and hype the crowd up.”
Juda said that he still gets jitters but that his goal when he takes the stage isn’t to hit a perfect handstand; it’s to “put on a good show” for the audience members who traveled long distances for a “glimmer of hope.”
When Biles asked them to go on the road with her, some of the gymnasts who had never toured before were concerned about falling.
Biles assuaged their fears — there’s no deduction for a fall on her stage.
“You show the kids that’s what it’s like,” she told them. “Even in shows, we can fall and get up and tell the kids it’s all right, because you’re not going to be perfect all the time.”
Much like her athletic career, the show Biles created isn’t just about gymnastics.
In conceiving the tour, she set out to curate an inclusive experience that had a storyline that could resonate with young children.
“I think every kid out there in the audience can pick out somebody on our tour lineup that looks just like them, and I think that’s really special,” Biles told NBC News. “I think sports have evolved so much, and there’s really a space for everyone.”
Off the competition floor, Biles has been a staunch advocate for mental health awareness and helped initiate reforms in her sport intended to protect athletes from abuse. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden in 2022, becoming the youngest person to receive the award at 25 years old.
Those values were palpable throughout the performance, which touched on themes of resilience, tenacity and integrity.
“I feel like what we have out here is really more of a brotherhood and a sisterhood,” Biles said of her teammates-turned-castmates. “We’re watching out for one another, but we’re also having fun and giving everyone their flowers because we all had such an amazing time in Paris. To celebrate that success with one another, as well as the crowd, is truly a blessing.”
