With endless energy, joyful swagger and great gymnastics, the GOAT (Gold Over America Tour) show starring Simone Biles and other top gymnasts delivers a wonderful deal of entertainment even for the most avid gymnastics fans.
If you liked the 2021 GOAT post-Tokyo Olympics show, it’s likely you would love even more the current one, which is running in 30 cities across the U.S. until November 3.
Presented by title sponsor Athleta, the show is a mixture of high-energy choreography by all cast members, combined with a high level of gymnastics skills and sequences.
Biles, the most decorated gymnast of world and Olympic history with 41 medals in total, is the star of the production; hence, the name of the show carries the GOAT acronym, a play on references to her as the Greatest of All Time.
The vast difference between the 2021 and 2024 tours is that the current show includes eight male gymnasts (nine, prior to Donnell Whittenburg’ s foot injury), while the 2021 show had an all-female cast.
The male gymnasts include three of the five team members of the U.S. bronze medal-winning team at the Paris Olympics – Paul Juda, Brody Malone and Frederick Richard – plus Tokyo Olympians and Paris Olympic alternates Yul Moldauer and Shane Wiskus. The male cast also includes former U.S. national team member and social media content creator, Ian Gunther, U.S. national team member Riley Loos and two-time Dutch Olympian Casimir Schmidt.
In addition to Biles, the female cast includes three of her four teammates who captured the team gold medal in Paris: Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles and Hezly Rivera. (Suni Lee, the 2021 Olympic all-around champion and the fifth member of the Paris team, is again not part of the tour; she did not participate in the 2021 tour because she was a contestant on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” during the tour).
Four-time Olympian Ellie Black and France’s Melanie de Jesus dos Santos give the show international flavor, as in 2021.
The cast is supported by four female dancers, duo emcees Peng-Peng Lee and Katelyn Ohashi, 2024 U.S. Olympic team alternate Joscelyn Roberson, and former U.S. national team member and NCAA standout Trinity Thomas.
Throughout the two-hour performance, including 20 minutes of intermission, there are subtle messages of resilience, determination and hope, but overall, the show can be labeled as pure fun.
The male gymnasts create most of the dynamics in the show primarily with big gymnastics skills on high bar and floor exercise. 2021 world high bar champion Malone, Richard and Wiskus all perform perfect Kolmans and double-twisting double layouts throughout the several acts. Gunther throws a slick layout Tkatchev to Tkatchev to piked Tkatchev connection, while Moldauer slides in a triple-twisting double layout dismount on one of his turns.
In a Barbie-themed number, with music by Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken,” the male cast dazzles with an energetic tumbling act which culminates to House of Pain’s “Jump Around.” That number includes a synchronized sequence of 2-1/2 twist to front full, multiple triple twists, and several flair sequences among other dynamic tumbling passes.
The gymnastics performed by the women’s cast consist of short sequence of high-level skills surrounded by dance in the specific acts. Under the spotlights Roberson hits a standing full on balance beam, and a double layout on the real floor. Biles dazzles with her impeccable tumbling technique performing a double front full on floor, a double layout and Biles I (double layout half-out) on a smartly designed tumbling rod strip which leads to the main floor mat area. Carey delivers an effortless double layout, and a front tuck step out to a double tuck on the main floor area.
Uneven bars sequences include Maloney to Pak by several of the gymnasts, Maloney to Tkatchev by Rivera, piked Jaeger by Black and several dismounts including dos Santos’ full twisting double layout.
Similar to the 2021 show, the second part features a question-and-answer session with all the current and former U.S. Olympians. They are asked a random question, and after their answer they perform a part of their actual Olympic routine. In that segment of the show Biles delivers the longest balance beam sequence of the production, which includes back handspring layout, switch leap half and a side aerial.
The entire cast unites for fun dancing and tumbling on the floor for one of the most energetic acts of the show, performed to Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em.” This cowboy-themed number also includes four mushrooms which the male gymnasts utilize for circle and flair mini-sequences, wearing jeans and cowboy hats. The act concludes with Biles performing eight circles on one of the mushrooms. Is there anything she can’t do?
A highlight of the show is an act that the cast also performed on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” September 24 while promoting the tour. The number largely consists of high-power tumbling on the rod tumbling strip. Some individual performances are also included on uneven bars, balance beam, pommel horse, parallel bars and high bar which are of the apparatus included in the tour.
Throughout the show the elevated energy level is reinforced with great music icons such as Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, AC/DC, Lizzo, Nicki Minaj, Lenny Kravitz, Andra Day and others.
The GOAT show clearly celebrates the Paris Games accomplishments of Biles (three golds and a silver) and the success of the U.S. gymnastics team as a whole, and applauds the sport of gymnastics in general.
Biles, the entire gymnastics cast, production staff, choreographers and producer Lee Marshall deserve big congratulation for a spectacle well done!
This review was based on the live performance in Fort Worth, Texas on October 20, 2024.
