Before we start, a content note.

This episode contains accounts of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and racism.

You'll also hear some swearing.

This was the sound outside of the Gold Over America tour when it stopped in Houston, Texas.

It's going to be pretty awesome because these are some of the people who have been on the Olympic team for a couple of years.

So, and we've seen them level up while we've been leveling up in our gymnastics too, so that'd be pretty cool.

Gold Over America was the 2021 post-alympic gymnastics tour.

And outside of the arena, little kids, mostly girls, were dressed in matching gymnastics club shirts,

or sparkly gold leotards. They were vibrating with excitement.

I'm not going to lie. I wasn't dressed in a leotard, but I was pretty damn excited too.

I'm a Mirror Rose Davis. I'm a professor and podcaster.

And I study the intersection of race, gender, sports, and politics.

Black women athletes in particular, like Simone Biles, are right up my alley.

So when I heard Simone was hosting her own post-alympics tour,

in her hometown of Houston, which is just 45 minutes from where I was born in Beaumont, Texas,

I knew I had to be there.

Now, I didn't go unprepared.

Just think of it as a pop concert, but gymnastics style.

That's Jordan Childs, fresh off of her Olympic silver medal in Tokyo.

She was a headliner for the show.

And before I drove down to Houston, I checked in with her about what I could expect.

We have LED lights. There's going to be a spoken word, the mix of international gymnasts,

...