Fred Richard

Frederick Nathaniel Richard (born April 23, 2004) is an American artistic gymnast. He is the 2023 World all-around bronze medalist, as well as the 2021 and 2022 Junior Pan American Champion. He will represent the United States at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Early life
Richard was born on April 23, 2004, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Carl and Ann-Marie Richard, who are of Haitian and Dominican descent, respectively. He has two brothers and one sister. He started with gymnastics at age four.

2019–20
Richard competed at his first elite-level National Championships in 2019. He placed eighth in the all-around but won bronze on floor exercise behind Nick Kuebler and Khoi Young. He was added to the junior national team for the first time. In 2020 Richard competed at the Elite Team Cup and the Winter Cup. He finished third at the latter behind Fuzzy Benas and Asher Hong. The majority of competitions for the rest of the year were cancelled or postponed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

2021
Richard returned to competition at the 2021 National Championships where he won the junior all-around title. He was named to the team to compete at the upcoming Junior Pan American Championships. While there he helped the United States win gold as a team and individually he won gold in the all-around and on vault and horizontal bar. Additionally he won silver on floor exercise and bronze on rings.

2022
Richard became age-eligible to compete at the senior-level in 2022; however, he opted to remain at the junior level in international competition. Richard competed at the DTB Pokal Team Challenge where he helped the United States finish first as a team. Individually he won gold on vault and parallel bars and placed fifth on floor exercise. Later in the year Richard competed at the Pan American Championships where he once again led the United States to team gold and individually won the all-around competition. During event finals Richard won gold on floor exercise, rings, and vault, silver on parallel bars, and bronze on pommel horse.

Although he competed at the junior level internationally, Richard competed in the senior division in domestic competitions. He competed on three events at the U.S. Classic before competing in the all-around at the 2022 National Championships. While there he finished fourth in the all-around, third on floor exercise, and second on horizontal bar. As a result he was added to the senior national team.

2023
Richard began competing for the Michigan Wolverines in the 2022–2023 season. He was selected to represent the United States at the DTB Pokal Team Challenge alongside Yul Moldauer, Asher Hong, Brody Malone, and Shane Wiskus. Together they placed first as a team.

In August Richard competed at the World University Games where he helped the USA finish fourth as a team. Individually, he qualified to the all-around and horizontal bar finals. He finished fourth in the all-around final, and seventh in the horizontal bar final. Richard next competed at the Xfinity National Championships, where he placed third all-around behind Asher Hong and Khoi Young. The following day he was named to the team to compete at the upcoming World Championships alongside Hong, Young, Yul Moldauer, Paul Juda, and alternate Colt Walker.

At the World Championships, Richard contributed scores on four events to help Team USA to a bronze-medal finish. In the all-around competition he earned the bronze medal behind Daiki Hashimoto of Japan and Illia Kovtun of Ukraine. Richard is the youngest USA gymnast to win an individual world medal in the men's competition, and the USA's first men's all-around medalist since 2010.

2024
During the 2024 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championship, Richard finished second on still rings with a score of 14.400 and second in the all-around with a score of 83.999 which helped Michigan finish as runner-up in the team competition. At the 2024 National Championships Richard finished second in the all-around behind Brody Malone.

In June, Richard competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials, where he placed first all-around (170.500), third on floor (28.700), ninth on pommel horse (27.050), seventh on rings (27.650), second on parallel bars (29.850), and first on high bar (28.850). After placing first in the all-around and in the top three for three events, Richard was automatically named to the U.S. Olympic Team to compete at the 2024 Olympic Games alongside Malone, Asher Hong, Paul Juda, and Stephen Nedoroscik.

Other ventures
Richard creates content about gymnastics training and athletic challenges on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, under the name FrederickFlips. He began posting on TikTok during the initial COVID-19 lockdowns in April 2020. As of May 2024, he had a total of 900,000 followers across his TikTok and Instagram accounts.

He also sells a line of apparel under his name for both adults and children, and has worked with brands like Crocs, Celsius, Marriott International, and Peloton.