Destination Paris: Stoughton gymnast Frederick Richard wants to bring his sport to the masses

All of the rites of passage for a youngster had been obtainable to Frederick Richard whereas rising up in Stoughton.

Soccer video games. Dances. Events. Hanging out.

Texts would pop into his telephone recurrently to see if he was up for doing one thing. And Richard’s response was nearly at all times some model of “thanks, however not at present. I’ve obtained follow.”

The invites to do the “cool issues” and the inherent peer strain that comes together with it had been always outweighed by the gymnast’s unwavering perception in himself and the incessant pull of his chosen sport, as nameless and uncool as it’s perceived to be — at the very least whenever you’re a man anyway — in the US.

“It was laborious within the sense that I felt form of alone in my journey and disregarded and issues,” he stated. “However I’m hooked on this. I’m hooked on the dream.”

A dream that extends far past simply the Olympics.

Don’t get Richard incorrect. The charismatic 20-year-old is aware of when he steps onto the ground at Bercy Enviornment in Paris on July 27, will probably be the end result of his nonetheless very younger life’s work. However it is only one step in a plan that extends far past any single talent, any single meet, any single medal.

Frederick Flips

The president and founding father of “
Frederick Flips,” a sports activities attire firm, doesn’t see himself as simply an athlete. He’s a CEO.
An influencer.
A YouTuber. A budding visionary who counts Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan amongst his heroes.

And sure, he is aware of what invoking these names entails.

“I’m not making an attempt to repeat issues and comply with paths which have been made,” Richard stated. “I’m at all times like ‘What am I going to do the subsequent 10 years? How do I create this path that’s by no means been accomplished, this profession? It doesn’t exist.’”

No, it doesn’t.

Males’s gymnastics has been largely an afterthought within the U.S. for many years, typically working within the shadows of a girls’s program that recurrently churns out gold medalists who attain “first title solely” standing throughout the sport.

Richard is barely too conscious that this type of standing doesn’t exist for American males. He’s making an attempt to vary that
one efficiency,
one viral social media submit,
one tv look at a time.

“One among my objectives is to have somebody stroll down the road someday and also you ask them to call a male gymnast they usually truly title a male gymnast,” he stated.

What’s in a reputation

Which brings the College of Michigan junior to his title.

Fred? Frederick? He’s bounced between preferences for some time earlier than deciding on each relying on the setting. Certain “Fred” works within the U.S. however “Frederick Richard” — a nod to his French heritage — carries just a little extra sophistication internationally.

If you wish to construct a model, in spite of everything, you’ve obtained to know your viewers.

Richard took a big step in getting his title — whichever one you choose — out when he earned bronze within the all-around on the 2023 world championships, the primary by an American man at a significant worldwide meet in 13 years. It was an enormous step for a males’s program that’s been operating in place for the higher a part of a decade.

It ought to have been a joyous second. It wasn’t. Not precisely anyway. Richard’s excessive bar routine in the course of the last rotation wasn’t his finest. He thought his possibilities at a medal had been gone. Then others within the subject struggled too, resulting in a outcome Richard wasn’t certain he deserved.

It wasn’t till Nice Britain’s James Corridor came to visit to congratulate him that Richard softened. The alternate provided a reminder that for the entire methods Richard is making an attempt to develop into a crossover star whereas making his sport extra accessible to the lots, the truth is he stays “obsessive about being an athlete, pushing the bounds.”

Sure, it may be simple to get caught up in all the pieces that goes into making an attempt to construct a model. But beneath Richard’s breeziness is a resolve primarily based not on swagger or ambition however one thing deeper.

“You see Fred in (the health club) and he’s simply grinding and simply sweating and simply pushing nonstop,” stated Michigan and Olympic teammate Paul Juda. “And I’m going, ‘I must be doing that.’”

Richard has no intention of changing into a kind of influencers who develop into solely loosely affiliated with what made them influential within the first place.

He solely really feels at house when he’s within the health club with chalk on his arms, tinkering with a routine or a talent or diving into movies of the lads he can be competing in opposition to in Paris.

He is aware of a medal of any coloration can be big for the U.S. program. However why accept merely getting on the rostrum? Why not deal with attending to the highest even realizing that defending Olympic champion Daiki Hashimoto of Japan will arrive in Paris as a heavy favourite to repeat?

That’s merely not Richard’s manner. When Juda, Richard and the remainder of the U.S. group arrived on the world championships final 12 months, there was a way of reduction among the many group on having made it. That merely wasn’t ok for Richard.

“(He’s) like, ‘Yeah, however what in regards to the cooler factor? Let’s do the cooler factor and let’s get individuals to speak in regards to the cooler factor,’” Juda stated.

Increased objectives

Richard isn’t programmed to goal decrease. If he was, possibly he would have bailed on all these weekend practices and gone to a celebration as a substitute. Possibly he would have let incessantly being the one Black athlete at a meet crammed with predominantly white rivals get to him.

It by no means did. Partly as a result of he says he at all times felt accepted. Partly as a result of he understood the chance in entrance of him if he might simply keep it up.

“Youngsters look as much as these massive names,” he stated. “However I wasn’t seeing anyone who was Black like me, dominating on the world stage (in males’s gymnastics). … I wished to be that particular person. I wished the gyms to replenish with Black youngsters. That’s nonetheless considered one of my massive objectives. That’s why I do that too.”

It’s one of many primary priorities in Richard’s ever-evolving “to-do” record.

A few of his favourite days are mornings that start with a brainstorming session along with his artistic group, one which has expanded during the last 12 months to incorporate two digital camera operators and a enterprise accomplice, amongst others.

He switched majors from enterprise to movie, TV and media. His long-term objectives embrace increasing his clothes line, doing just a little performing and serving as a producer.

“Each day I develop, I study one thing new,” he stated. “Each day I get barely extra readability on what I wish to do, what I wish to develop into. And I simply now I simply really feel like something’s doable.”

That sense of readability additionally gives Richard with a way of freedom. Possibly he sticks all the pieces on the Olympics and comes house with a medal or three in his carry-on. Or possibly he doesn’t. He’s placing all the pieces he has into this second, sure. However he is not going to let the end result outline him.

“(Both manner) I’ll go house and stay my superb life that I’m already dwelling,” he stated. “So let me have enjoyable displaying off, after which I believe I’ll exhibit.”