“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.”
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