By Rebecca Cohen
Frederick “Flips” Richard is already making a name for himself in men’s gymnastics as he soars into the Olympic trials, having recently clinched the No. 2 spot at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, but he has been captivating an audience on social media for years and has big plans for the sport’s future.
Richard, 20, grew up in Stoughton, Massachusetts and first hit the gym at twoyears old. After his parents saw him on their bed throwing flips he’d seen in his older sister’s gymnastics classes, they decided to put him in class, too. But he wouldn’t listen to the instructors at that age so his parents took him back when he was four. Competitions started when he was six, and he “never did another sport.”
Starting young helped Richard build a strong foundation, he said. Not only was he required to repeat levels to stay within age parameters, but he was also training with kids three years his senior.
And then I compete against kids my age and destroy them,” Richard said.
Now a rising junior at the University of Michigan, where he trains and competes, he’s on the precipice of fulfilling a dream shared by many young athletes.
“I want to enter the Olympics with the whole country knowing, like, that’s Frederick Richard, like this man is going to do it,” he said.
The Olympics has always been on Richard’s mind, at least since he was 10, when he was placed into Future Stars — an intensive training program for the best young U.S. gymnasts. That helped him earn a spot on the U.S. national team and jump-started his Olympic training.
Richard loves the freedom in how gymnasts can move their bodies and the unlimited challenge gymnastics presents.
“There’s no limit to the sport,” Richard said, which he finds addicting. “It’s a video game with a billion levels.”
Richard’s star has been on the rise. He was named the 2024 NCAA Gymnast of the Year, and was the NCAA all-around champion last year. He was also the youngest U.S. man to win an all-around medal at the Artistic World Championships when he took bronze last year, and earned a bronze as part of the men’s team event.
He is among the top of the pack heading into the Olympic trials in Minneapolis on June 27 to 30 after he finished first in the floor exercise at the national championships and second overall.
Richard hopes to qualify for the Olympics in team, all-around, floor, vault, parallel bars and high bar. Looking ahead to Paris, he already has social media content planned for between events in the Olympic village.
Flipping onto social media
Richard, who is known as Frederick Flips to his fans and followers — nearly 1 million of them on TikTok and Instagram combined — ended up on TikTok the way many people did.
“It started during Covid,” Richard said. “I was just bored at home.”
His first posts had nothing to do with his life as a gymnast, he said, but as the views on each video kept growing and as Covid restrictions eased and he got back into the gym, Richard decided to combine the sport he loves with an endeavor that has taken him to new heights.
