Frederick Richard thinks the U.S. men’s gymnastics team’s success at the Olympics is just the start

PARIS (AP) - Frederick Richard understands it will take a lot for Americans to get involved in men’s gymnastics.

It’s an uphill climb. A steep one at that. The 20-year-old who has made it his life’s mission to have people care about his chosen sport knows this only too well.

Yet there was a shift during his first trip to the Olympics. Richard could feel it.

It wasn’t just the bronze he helped the five-man U.S. team secure on Monday. It wasn’t just the spike in followers across his social media platforms, though that was certainly nice for the man behind " Frederick Flips. " It wasn’t just the overall sense of momentum inside a men’s program that had spent a decade running in place.

It was all of it at an event he hopes serves as a launching pad toward the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

"I can see it," Richard said. "People are watching now. People are supporting us and we're building. I mean, the medal obviously is proof of it. But we have so much more potential that didn't get seen here and that just shows that we're heading in the right direction."

Yet for all the progress the U.S. has made, Richard saw firsthand over three days of competition inside Bercy Arena at the Paris Games how much further there still is to go. The team final took more out of him both physically and emotionally than he imagined.

Getting back into the gym on Tuesday to prep for the all-around was tough. Navigating the euphoria of being on the medal stand and the attention that ensued - from pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik becoming an internet sensation to the team picture being splashed across the kind of media platforms that don’t pay much attention to that side of the sport - if they even pay attention at all - was something he thought he’d prepared for.

He hadn’t.

By the time he’d saluted the judges in his first rotation - ironically pommels, the same spot where the celebration began on Monday - he was pretty much out of juice. He nearly stalled at the start of his routine and quickly thereafter came off, ending any legitimate chance of adding a medal to go with the bronze he won in the same event at last year’s world championships.

"You give a lot more strength, or I did, giving everything to the team final," he said. "You're trying to recover. You think you've recovered but your body did more than it seems like it did."

What followed were five rotations in which Richard lacked the crispness, precision and power that were part of the American’s near-perfect performance in the team competition. He shorted the landing on his last tumbling pass on floor exercise, his final event. He stood up, and saluted the judges and the crowd, making it a point to drink in an Olympic moment that he has no plans on making his last.

"Yeah, you don't get a medal but I didn't get to this level dreaming about medals," Richard said. "I really got to this level by loving the process of doing good gymnastics and pushing myself in the gym every day."

The athlete who calmly said the team needed to trust the process after a shaky performance in qualifying plans to do just that over the next four years.

He’ll spend the fall as part of Simone Biles’ "Gold Over America Tour,” which will help him reach a whole new audience. Then it will be back to Michigan, back to competing, back to brainstorming of creative ways to bring people under the umbrella of a sport that could use a boost, particularly at the NCAA level.

In the span of nine months, Richard was part of two teams that succeeded at the highest level. The Americans backed up their somewhat surprise bronze at the 2023 world championships with more hardware in Paris. The gymnast who wondered in the moment whether he rightfully deserved that all-around bronze he captured in Antwerp, Belgium now believes he belongs with the best in the world.

"I think a lot of people from the US and across the world recognized me at this competition and respected me," he said. "And that was my biggest goal coming here."

It’s the same one he had for a team that will remain tight no matter where life may take Richard, Nedoroscik, Brody Malone, Paul Juda and Asher Hong. Malone was on the floor supporting Richard and Juda in a final that most expected the three-time national champion to be in.

Malone wasn’t after a qualifying that was far less than his best. That did not stop him from being on the floor during the finals, offering audible screams of support every time Richard or Juda went up on an event.

"All of us are very close," Richard said. "To know that your brothers are still supporting you every way they can … it just makes me really grateful."

The last year has been good for men’s gymnastics in the U.S., and for the man intent on saving it, even if Wednesday wasn’t.

"People are just saying that you got a new fan into the sport because of (our performance)," he said. "I think a lot was gained (at the Olympics) and we're definitely on the right track."

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games