Twenty-year-old Frederick Richard won big Monday, July 29 as the U.S. Men’s Gymnastics
team won an Olympic bronze medal for team artistic gymnastics. This is the first time the team
has placed in 16 years. The last time they won was during the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Also,
this is the first time in almost 30 years that an African American man has placed in the sport.
Richard is the only Black male on the team. He is originally from Stoughton, Massachusetts
and currently attends the University of Michigan. He began taking the world by storm last year at
the 2023 World Championships, where he became the youngest American male gymnast to win
an individual medal in an international competition in 13 years.

The team, consisting of Brody Malone, Asher Hong, Paul Juda, Stephen Nedoroscik, and
Richard, qualified for the finals on Saturday, July 27, 2024 with a few rocky moments that
placed them in 5th position going into the finals. Then and on Monday, they competed in six
courses – rings, vault, parallel bars, high bar, floor, and lastly, pommel horse where
Nedoroscik’s routine solidified their place in Olympic history. Richard received his best score
on the high bar with a 14.833. Team USA took to the podium beside Japan (gold) and China
(silver).

Richard’s goal is to make men’s gymnastics more common amongst African Americans. He is
surely on his way to making the sport popular with his growing Tik Tok account,
@FrederickFlips, which has over 700,000 followers and counting. He and his teammate Juda
will move on to the 24-athlete all-around (individual) final in 10th and 13th place, respectively.
Nedoroscik will move on to the pommel horse final.