Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast of all time, is coming to Cleveland. What we know

GOAT. Legend. Idol. Those are just a few words used to describe gymnast Simone Biles. The decorated athlete along with Shilese Jones, Fred Richard, Mélanie Johanna De Jesus Dos Santos, and more are coming to Northeast Ohio later this year to put on a world class gymnastics performance.

What is the Gold Over America Tour?

The Gold Over America Tour starring Simone Biles is coming to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland on Oct. 27. "Prepare for a pop concert-style spectacle showcasing athletic brilliance, championship journeys and of course, the Gold Squad dancers," the tour's site states.

The initials, GOAT, are a nod to Biles' greatest of all-time status.

This is the second iteration of the tour, which first went out in 2021, with the goal of embodying strength, resilience and determination to audiences young and old.

Besides the Cleveland show, the other Ohio stop the tour will make is in Cincinnati on Nov. 2.

When do tickets go on sale?

Tickets go on sale Friday, May 17 at rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com.

Who is Simone Biles?

Biles was actually born in Columbus, but grew up near Houston, Texas, as a foster child before being formally adopted by her maternal grandfather and his wife, according to Andscape.

At 27 years old, she is the most decorated gymnast, male or female, in history. She's won 37 medals total at the world championships and Olympics, 27 of which are gold.

In July 2022, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the U.S.'s highest civilian honor.

As of December 2023, Biles was ranked as the 16th highest-paid female athlete in the world at $7.1 million, according to Forbes, making her the first gymnast to be among the top-paid female athletes in at least 12 years.

Simone Biles shines light on mental health

Biles was open about her mental health struggles when she surprisingly took a step back from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. She talked about dealing with the "twisties," a mental block that gymnasts can face.

Rising anxiety from the high expectations on her and the isolation of COVID protocols caused her to lose her sense of where she is in the air, USA TODAY reporter Nancy Armour wrote. Unwilling to risk her health and safety, Biles withdrew from all but one final during those Olympics.

"Before that, (fans) only ever said, like 'congratulations,' and 'thank you' for gymnastics, but now with mental health being a huge topic that's talked about basically on the daily now, they're always telling me, like, 'thank you so much, you've done so much for me and my family, my friends, now I'm going to go get help,'" she told USA TODAY reporter Suzette Hackney in 2022.

Who is Simone Biles married to?

Biles married Jonathan Owens, a safety for the NFL's Chicago Bears, on April 22, 2023 in Mexico.

Owens played for the Houston Texans when he and Biles first got together and then signed with the Green Bay Packers shortly after their wedding. He recently signed with the Bears last month.

Biles was mainstay on the sidelines cheering her husband on in Wisconsin.

Owens caused quite the stir when he insisted that he had never heard of Biles before they met.

"I never really paid any attention to gymnastics," Owens admitted when he was a guest on "The Pivot" podcast last year, saying he didn't watch the 2016 Olympics when Biles was one of the brightest stars of the Summer Games. "It piqued my curiosity."

The podcast hosts weren't buying it. Peep the 8:53 minute mark in the episode linked here.

Simone Biles testified against Larry Nassar

In 2018, Biles revealed she was one of hundreds of young female athletes who were sexually assaulted by former USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar. She did not attend his hearing, but in 2021 she, along with national-team teammates McKayla Maroney, Maggie Nichole and Aly Raisman testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that Nassar was enabled by USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

USA Gymnastics reported Nassar to the FBI in the summer of 2015 and also alerted the USOPC to Nassar’s suspected misconduct. But it would be almost another year before the FBI began an investigation. Neither USA Gymnastics nor the USOPC said anything publicly about Nassar until The Indianapolis Star, part of the USA TODAY Network, published a story in September 2016 in which two former gymnasts said he’d sexually abused them.

USA TODAY contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Simone Biles, Gold Over America Tour coming to Cleveland