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PARIS — Long before Frederick Richard was an Olympian, or a TikTok star — before he had even been born — his mother knew he was going to be an energetic boy.
"I knew he was going to be a very active child from my stomach, from the womb," Anne-Marie Richard said, laughing. "He got out and was as active as I predicted. He was doing flips in his crib."
On Wednesday, Richard, the 20-year-old Olympic rookie, will compete to become the first U.S. men's gymnast to win a medal at the individual all-around in more than a decade.
Two days ago, he was a key part of Team USA's electrifying performance in the team all-around final, in which the U.S. men's gymnastics squad broke a 16-year team medal drought.
A dramatic, last-minute finish that night — the podium spot wasn't certain until pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik successfully landed the final routine of the night — captured the nation's attention.
Now, with the spotlight on men's gymnastics for the first time in over a decade, Richard is ready for his solo show in prime time. "I'm gonna enjoy it. I'm 20 years old, and the world is watching. I'm gonna give them something to be entertained by," he said.
And his ambitions go beyond the Olympics, he says.
"My goal leaving here was to make a statement that the U.S. is getting stronger and stronger," he said Monday. "I think we did that today. I think a lot of young boys watching are inspired by us, and that makes me really happy."
An Olympic appearance long in the making
Frederick (and it’s Frederick, not Fred) was only four years old when a coach recognized his potential, his father Carl said. Soon, other parents in the gym told the Richards that they should start saving money to one day send their son to the Olympics.
The Richards knew little about gymnastics. Neither parent was born in the U.S.; Anne-Marie immigrated from Dominica, and Carl was born in Haiti. But there was a gymnastics gym near their home, and soon Frederick was old enough to walk there while the parents worked.
When he was 10, a coach helped sketch out a possible timeline for his career — including the 2024 Olympics.
"This has always been a dream of Fred's, so, for sure, seeing it come to fruition is exciting," his mother said. "But I also know Fred has goals way beyond the Olympics. So this is just the tip of the iceberg."
The start of FrederickFlips
Richard turned 16 amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020. Stuck at home with an excess of teenager energy, Richard started posting videos on TikTok of gymnastics feats from the family's living room: one-handed handstands, a montage of increasingly challenging push-ups, flips onto the furniture.
"He realized what an impact he was having just from the comments from little boys being so excited and motivated by him that he wanted to take this further," Anne-Marie said.
He asked his parents to pay for social media influencer classes, they said. Soon, he branded his account "FrederickFlips."
His social media demeanor — charismatic, funny, curious — blossomed after his arrival at the University of Michigan, which had granted him a gymnastics scholarship.
In his videos, he invites other Michigan athletes to try athletic feats and simple gymnastics skills, like high jumps and backflips. He enlists his gymnastics teammates in challenges like flipping into a pair of shorts. In one video, he walks on his hands on a treadmill as a teammate sets the speed faster and faster. (Anne-Marie didn't care for that last one, she said. "I immediately texted him, like, 'That is dumb, don't ever do that again.' He's like, 'Mom, it's not as bad as it looks. I know what I'm doing,'" she said with a laugh.)
Now, his TikTok has more than 790,000 followers. On Instagram, he has another half a million followers. Both numbers have grown by hundreds of thousands over the past month.
His ambitions go beyond followers or Olympic medals
The ultimate goal of his social media account isn't followers or endorsements. And even more than he wants Olympic medals and individual success, Richard wants people to care about men's gymnastics.
"Every competition I go to, I look at the crowd and I see a lot of seats open. I say, I want to change this. And this is the first step," he said.
That means more viewers and bigger crowds. He also hopes the attention will help increase opportunities for boys in gymnastics.
Only 15 colleges and universities sponsor a men's gymnastics program, including Richard's University of Michigan. By contrast, there are 87 women's programs. (And for context, there are more than 1,400 men's basketball teams across all collegiate divisions.)
"I think we all realize this is bigger than us," he said. "We all grew up giving everything to the sport. We want other kids to have that opportunity, to have way more colleges to select from and to get blessed with what they deserve, because the sport deserves so much more."
The first step to accomplishing all that was making it to these Olympics — check. Then came winning a medal in Monday night's team all-around final — check.
Next is the individual all-around final, scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday.
But his sights are set further than that. "I have ten more years of this sport," he said.
"Honestly, it's scary sometimes when a plan is working exactly how you planned it out to be. It's exciting. And I hope the plan is not done," Frederick said.
Copyright 2024 NPR
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