Team USA gymnast Frederick Richard was born for this moment
OPINION: “Frederick Flips” has talent that nearly matches his eagerness to grow men’s gymnastics and draw more Black boys into the sport.
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Men’s gymnastics has always taken a backseat to the women’s version, which routinely produces bevies of international champions from these United States. We’ve now reached the point where Black Girl Magic has become a thing in the sport — from Dominque Dawes in 1992 and Gabby Douglass in 2012, to the incomparable Simone Biles since 2016 — while the men have remained mostly obscure and devoid of color.
Frederick Richard was born for this moment.
Just 20 years old, he finds his life’s purpose and childhood dream intersecting in Paris, with growing anticipation for another crossover at the Los Angeles Olympics in four years. By then, he’ll be further along in his mission, a task some athletes might avoid but he embraces with gusto.
“I want to be that Michael Jordan of gymnastics,” Richard told USA Today before arriving in Paris and showing out. “The one who changes it when he leaves and makes it 20 times as big and respected. That’s one of the big goals I have and I’ll be in the sport for another 10 years.”
On Monday, he helped the U.S. men’s gymnastics team win its first Olympic medal (bronze) in 16 years, and he qualified for the all-around competition Wednesday. He’s hoping his star turn attracts more Black and brown faces than the scant few he encountered while rising. “I’ve grown up my whole life wishing there were some Black gymnasts dominating the sport on the men’s side that I can look up to,” he told The Boston Globe after Team USA’s third-place finish in team competition.
Richard is well-positioned to be a Black Pied Piper along the lines of Tiger Woods in golf and the Williams sisters in tennis. As @FrederickFlips, he enjoys nearly 1 million followers combined across Instagram and TikTok, where he posts a steady stream of content that includes friendly competitions against his fellow University of Michigan athletes. Some videos contain warnings against attempting the actions yourself because you might break your neck.
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Guys who might willingly take that risk in football are less inclined to choose gymnastics as their athletic pursuit. But Richard has been committed to flipping ever since he was a toddler who worried his parents to death with all the somersaults and whatnot. “From very early on he was doing handstands; I mean, he was literally doing it in his crib at less than two,” his mother told NBC Boston. He began training at 4 years old and never gave another sport a second thought. His passion for gymnastics only grew when he had to miss a year, at 14 years old, due to a stress fracture in his back. He returned with a newfound dedication to become an Olympian.
Richard crushed as a youth, a raisin in the flour. “You grow up in the gym and there’s, if you’re lucky enough, three Black kids out of hundreds, and it’s weird,” he said in June. “I had a great childhood, but when you feel out of place you want to look up to somebody who looks like you, but there wasn’t really anybody winning these medals in the Olympics. So now I feel like that’s an opportunity I have to make those other kids comfortable.”
He attacks the sport with the energy and joy of a rambunctious schoolboy, the ones we see bouncing through playgrounds and other public spaces when they’re not jumping around at home. Gymnastics offers a great outlet for feats of strength, agility and flexibility, and Richard is a great ambassador. I have no doubt his performance in Paris will lead more Black boys to give the gym a try.
Richard’s athletic ability is obvious. But like many elite men’s gymnasts, his height might work against him in mainstream sports that attract most of our top athletes. He’s listed at 5 feet, 5 inches tall, which is typical for the average male gymnast. His emergence last year – as the youngest American male to ever medal in the all-around at the world championships – and his dominance as a sophomore at Michigan – winning the NCAA all-around, parallel bars and high bar titles – should be inspirational to boys of similar stature.
Making men’s gymnastics as popular as women’s gymnastics is a heavy lift and perhaps unrealistic. But he’s determined to make the sport bigger. He’ll join Biles on her “Gold Over America Tour” (GOAT) after the Paris Games and return to Michigan to defend his titles. Everything is unfolding just as he planned/dreamed.
“I’ve gotten this opportunity because of it [gymnastics], and I want to make those things happen for other people,” Richard said before heading to Paris. “And I want the sport that I’m, like, in love with to get the respect it deserves.
If it never gets there, it won’t be for his lack of trying.
Deron Snyder, from Brooklyn, is an award-winning columnist who lives near D.C. and pledged Alpha at HU-You Know! He’s reaching high, lying low, moving on, pushing off, keeping up, and throwing down. Got it? Get more at blackdoorventures.com/deron.
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