By Jack Houston
Thomas & Mack Center, 7:30 p.m. Sept. 20, $30-$205 plus tax and fee. 702.739.3267
It’s a lineup so talented, even McKayla Maroney is impressed. On Sept. 20, some of the top male and female gymnasts in the country stop by the Thomas & Mack Center as part of the Kellogg’s Tour of Gymnastics Champions.
Gymnastics fever has certainly reached a peak in the United States, with the women’s team taking home the all-around gold medal at this summer’s Olympic Games in London. Led by individual all-around gold medalist Gabrielle Douglas, floor exercise gold medalist Aly Raisman and vault silver medalist Maroney, the “Fierce Five,” as they came to be known, captured the nation’s attention just as the “Magnificent Seven” had 16 years earlier. All three gymnasts are slated to appear on the tour, although the lineup changes from stop to stop.
The men’s team had a much harder go in London, capturing only a bronze medal in the individual all-around competition. Still, Jake Dalton, Jonathan Horton and John Orozco proved they could compete at the highest level, and all three can be seen at various stops along the tour.
Nastia Liukin, whose five medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics tied an American gymnastics record, leads a lineup of past Olympians on the tour, which also includes her 2008 teammates Chellsie Memmel and Alicia Sacramone. It’s almost as if the Summer Games never ended.
