Gold Over America Tour another chance to put Jamaica's gymnastics on show - Danusia Francis

By March 04, 2021

Jamaica’s Olympic-bound gymnast Danusia Francis believes her inclusion in Simone Biles’ Gold Over America Tour is another opportunity for her to highlight Jamaica’s gymnastics on an international stage.

Francis, who will be Jamaica’s lone representative in Tokyo this summer, is part of a group of world-class gymnasts set to tour 35 cities across the USA from September through November this year. Biles, considered by many to be the greatest gymnast in history, recently announced that the tour will feature “some of the most exciting female athletes in the world right now in a way you’ve never seen before.”

“My friends Laurie Hernandez, Katelyn Ohashi, Peng Peng Lee, Danusia Francis, Morgan Hurd, and an all-star team of gymnasts will share our favourite moves and stories and hope to inspire a whole new generation of superstars,” Biles said on the Gold Over America Tour Instagram account.

For Francis, this presents an exciting opportunity for both her and the country she represents.

“It is such a huge deal for me, especially to be able to put Jamaica on the map like that with literally the world’s best gymnasts,” she told Sportsmax.TV.

“I am so excited and just to keep proving and showing and highlighting Jamaica in the gymnastics world. So it’s not only a big deal for me but it is a big deal for Jamaica to keep showing that we are here in the gymnastics world and just stamping our place. I am excited to represent Jamaica on such an amazing stage.”

Valorie Kondos-Field, her coach at UCLA where she was a six-time All American gymnast, made it possible to be part of the tour.

“My coach recommended me and then the people in charge showed a bit of interest and reached out to me initially just to say they were interested and eventually it all went through,” Francis told Sportsmax.TV this week.

“Obviously, because I don’t live in the US, they had to sort out visas and stuff so it was kind of up in the air for a bit so I was all excited when all went through.”

The beautiful and talented Francis, whose father is Jamaican, came to global prominence in March 2019 on the back of her electrifying routines at the Superstars of Gymnastics showcase at the O2 Arena in London. Biles, who also performed, was among the many who were enthralled by how engaging and entertaining her performances were.

She guessed that those performances might have been a deciding factor in the organizers selecting her to on the tour.

“I imagine that the performances that I did in the O2 Arena; obviously Simone got to see me in that way where it was not a competition but you really had to engage the audience. So, this tour is headlined by her so I am sure she had some sort of input as to who was on the tour, so I think it helped,” she said.

“It definitely didn’t do any harm as I think it really showed me in my element doing gymnastics and performing to a crowd and really enjoying it.”

She anticipates she will have a really good time in the USA during the tour after hopefully landing Jamaica’s first-ever Olympic medal in gymnastics in Tokyo.

“I think the experience will be so exciting getting to enjoy gymnastics with so many talented gymnasts rather than competing against each other or competing in general,” she said.

“It’s just going to be a celebration and a huge performance so we will just get to enjoy each other’s gymnastics and cheer each other on and perform for the audiences. I think it will be so good.”

Leighton Levy

Leighton Levy is a journalist with 28 years’ experience covering crime, entertainment, and sports. He joined the staff at SportsMax.TV as a content editor two years ago and is enjoying the experience of developing sports content and new ideas. At SportsMax.tv he is pursuing his true passion - sports.

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