A Look At The Gymnastics Tour

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I thought I was enjoying myself, until I got a glance of my daughter’s face. My fun-factor was paling in comparison to hers. It was a Friday night in the big city! My daughter Patton, her friend Annie, and I were at Atlanta’s Phillips Area surrounded by an incredibly enthusiastic crowd for the 2008 Tour of Gymnastics Superstars.

Their faces lit up when the two gold medal superstars arrived on stage. Nastia Luikin and Shawn Johnson were the crowd pleasers. In all of their Olympic glory—full red, white and blue—the champions received a rousing applause, and I had two of their biggest fans sitting on either side of me. Soon Luikin and Johnson were joined by the rest of the Superstars and so the show began!

As it played out, there was something there for everyone. The choreographers tapped Disney’s “rockin’ girlz” for the music. KSM and Jordan Pruitt were big-people pleasers and little-girl “wowsers!” Familiar tunes for the teen and tween set (the likes of Miley C., The Cheetah Girls, and Vanessa Hudgens) paced the tumbling passes, flips, and fun! Overall, the show seemed to find the perfect balance among the group numbers and the individual spotlight sets. Another great balance was the mix of gymnastics stars not only from this Olympics, but past Olympic Games as well, including gold medalists Shannon Miller and Paul Hamm.

In terms of the level of gymnastics, the athletes weren’t performing just simple layouts on floor or giants on bars. There were high-flying releases (Horton’s three Kovacs high bar set had the crowd roaring) and big tumbling passes (huge double pikes from Johnson, 2 ½ twists from many in the group number; front double twist from Liukin). Chellsie Memmel is working to add a solo beam routine and Tasha Schwikert has been working double layouts off of bars in training. Miller was in incredible shape and looked just as focused and elegant on beam as she did years ago, prompting a person seated just down from me to say “she could still be competing today!”