Gold Over America Tour to star Simone Biles, field of all-star female gymnasts

Tickets are officially live for the Gold Over America Tour, starring Simone Biles and an all-star team of female gymnastics champions.

The group will tour from September through November, following the Tokyo Olympics, and stop in 35 cities across the United States, celebrating female empowerment and togetherness at every stop along the way.

Unlike performances of the past, this tour will be an opportunity for the gymnasts to represent themselves and their character, rather than a college or country. 

“We finally get to enjoy the sport for what it is and the beauty of it,” 2018 NCAA champion Katelyn Ohashi told GymNow on Thursday. “This is going to be the purest form of gymnastics that we’ve [done] since we first started.”

Ohashi and Biles will be joined by former UCLA gymnasts Danusia Francis and Peng-Peng Lee, 2021 Winter Cup champion Jordan Chiles, 2017 World champion Morgan Hurd and 2016 Olympic gold and silver medalist Laurie Hernandez.

The field of gymnasts features a wide array of backgrounds and empowering stories. 

“I think the best part about the tour is there’s so much diversity,” Hernandez told us in the same interview. “It’s going to be a way to highlight each individual person, and we get to know and understand each one.” 

As the audience learns to understand each gymnast, the gymnasts are hoping to understand the young fans as well.

The tour will include meet and greets, allowing for meaningful interaction between the women and the next generation. 

“My curiosity has definitely sparked for the little ones, especially. My hope is that we can inspire them to either stick with something or to have freedom to say I want to try something else.” Hernandez said.  

Hernandez, who recently injured herself during warmups at the U.S. Championships, is hopeful to be 100% by the time the tour starts in September.

While Hernandez won’t be at the Tokyo Olympics, as she did not qualify for trials, this is not necessarily the end of her elite gymnastics career. October’s World Championships are still an option for the gymnast.

“I do think the tour is the focus right now, but I don’t rule anything out,” Hernandez said. “I think if I’ve learned anything in the past 21 years of being on this rock, it’s that sometimes things just happen… I definitely keep my mind open to those things for sure.” 

Athletes like Hernandez, Biles, Chiles and Hurd are warmed up and ready for the Gold Over America Tour after spending the quad training and competing for the United States. But for the women coming out of retirement, the preparation for an undertaking like this looks a little different. 

Ohashi, who is most famous for her viral floor routines while at UCLA, does plan on giving the same spunk and energy she had during her collegiate career, even if the skills look a little different.

“It’s just about building strength and making sure my body is strong enough to do the moves, but it’s been great to be back in the gym,” the 2018 NCAA floor champion said.

The post-Olympic tour will celebrate the return of greats like Ohashi while also highlighting the current stars of the sport, including the leader of the pack: Biles. 

“This girl, she is the moment right now,” Hernandez said about Biles. “She has highlighted so much in the sport between things that she can do and who she is.”

It all kicks off in Tucson on September 21, 2021 with stops along the way in Denver, Los
Angeles, Anaheim, Houston, Chicago, Detroit, Columbus, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Newark, and Brooklyn, before
concluding in Boston, November 7, 2021. A full list of cities and ticket information can be found here.

The tour will spotlight each gymnast performing segments from their most famous routines mixed with career highlight and personal videos, social media interactions, spoken word, and a crew of gymnastic dancers under eye-popping LED video screens and lights. Action comes from the stage, a runway into the audience, and a central gymnastics floor for maximum viewing experiences.

Tickets to see Biles and the rest of the all-star field are available for purchase on Gold Over America Tour’s website, and check out some of the highlights from GymNow’s interview with Ohashi and Hernandez below!

Interview Highlights: GymNow reporter Mackenzie Brooks talks all things Gold Over America Tour with Katelyn Ohashi and Laurie Hernandez

Gymnastics Now: Katelyn you have been out of competition for quite some time, what’s it been like getting back into the gym and relearning those moves?

Katelyn Ohashi: It has definitely been a struggle, but one thing you learn in gymnastics is how to challenge yourself, and so having a challenge is something I look forward to, especially something as amazing as this has been really exciting for me. Luckily enough, it’s pretty second nature, so it’s just about building strength and making sure my body is strong enough to do the move, but it’s been great getting back to the gym. 

GN: Chellsie Memmell has talked about the muscle memory aspect, is that something you experience as well?

KO: Oh 100%. Like second day in the gym I was already doing my back handspring layouts again. I feel like in college you get to learn how to train as minimally as possible. It’s like just preparing your body with a lot of mental work and training like that. I feel like I’ve had a lot of practice with that.

GN: Are we going to see like a NCAA-level routine on tour, or is it going to be a little toned down from what you used to do?

KO: I think that you’re going to see an array of different moves. I think that, obviously, the Olympians are going to be doing much harder skills than I am, but we’re in there to perform to the highest level that we can and to make this thing as high energy as possible and bring in our best moves that we got.

GN: Laurie, after last weekend’s injury, what does training in the gym look like for you, and what can we expect on tour?

Laurie Hernandez: I think in terms of last week – having that fall on day one for championships – I’m supposed to have a meeting today or tomorrow with a team of doctors on treatment plans and things like that. By tour, all should be good in the world, and I’m hoping to just be doing everything that I can as soon as possible and for, kind of, you know, making sure that we’re all doing skills that are fun and are definitely crowd-pleasing but, also, they keep us safe and that we enjoy doing.

GN: Do you think your time on Dancing with the Stars has helped with your showmanship for tour?

LH: I like to think so. I mean, tours are interesting. Everyone is different. Every experience is different. Every arena, every show, every person, so just allowing yourself to have, essentially, no expectations. We never know who we’re going to meet. We never know the stories that we’re going to hear, so just leaving space for that. I think that’s the biggest thing.

GN: Is Worlds in October a possibility for you, or are you just focusing on the tour?

LH: I think the tour is the focus right now, but I definitely don’t rule anything out. I think if I’ve learned anything in the past 21 years of being on this rock, it’s that sometimes things just happen, and allowing space in the mind for that, whether that be World competitions or whether that be another competition later on. I definitely keep my mind open to those things for sure.

GN: What are things we can expect on this tour other than some awesome performances? What else does this tour bring for the viewers?

KO: I think it’s gonna be an array of so many different things and highlighting the community that we are in. Women empowerment things, a lot of dancing, a lot of great music that you’ll be hearing, and I think it’s going to be super personal. It’s going to be social media interactions and just having meet and greets, so it’s going to be really a good time for not just us but, hopefully, the audience as well. I think this is a time to bring joy to something, a situation, that was out of our control.

GN: How does it feel to just be performing for fun without the high pressure situations?

KO: We finally get to enjoy the sport for what it is, and the beauty of it, because that’s the most important thing. You do things because you fall in love with them, and this is going to be the purest form of gymnastics that we’ve [done] since we first started. It’s going to be full circle. 

GN: Katelyn, you’ve already had multiple viral floor routines. Will you be performing something similar to those or something new?

KO: Honestly, we still don’t know what we’re doing, so it’s gonna be a surprise for everyone. We’re going to get together and figure it out, and I think you should be seeing some just as high quality performances.

GN: Laurie, it’s been so fun to watch your leotard reveals this season. Is there any type of brainstorming that’s been going on for the tour, or any sneak peeks/ideas you have?

LH: Oh, I don’t know if I get to create anything for tour. If I do, it’ll probably be superheroes theme, so it might be a bad idea to leave me in charge of that. But it’s been really fun to make leos the last few competitions. I didn’t get to do that growing up. To be sponsored by GK and to have total freedom of creation and freedom of art and things like that, it’s just been so exciting and walking into a meet being like “Alright, this is the superhero I am today.” It’s really empowering. I get to draw inspiration from multiple places, not just in gymnastics but elsewhere.

GN: How important is it to build your own character and be representing yourself independently instead of your school or for Team USA ?

LH: I think that’s probably the best part about the tour – is that there’s so much diversity and there’s so many different women doing different things. It’s gonna be a way to highlight each individual person, and we get to know and understand each one. In terms of the crowd connecting with everybody, that’s so important, because then it’s not just us. We get to show [the audience] things that we can do, but we also get to show who we are, and it feels good to do that.

KO: We all support each other. Honestly, that is definitely something that I would say, too. We all get to be together for the first time, and I think that’s what exactly this tour highlights – it shows the different successes from different walks of life we’ve all come from. I feel like Miss Val did a really great job when we were in college. I’ve been picking these characters and acting like them, so it’ll be fun to be back with her and get that same energy for everyone that didn’t get the same experience.