31 Jul Will Fred Richard Reign In Phoenix? A Stellar NCAA Career Closes, The LA28 Quest Begins
It’s Fred Richard’s time. And Phoenix is waiting.
With two-time Olympian, 2024 Olympic team bronze medalist, two-time World Champion on high bar, and three-time (2021, 2022, 2024) U.S. All-Around Champion Brody Malone taking the year off from competition, 2024 Olympic team bronze medalist and two-time (2023 and 2025) defending U.S. All-Around Champion Asher Hong not currently on the registered list of athletes (we’ve heard he’s injured), and 2025 World Champion on rings Donnell Whittenburg out presumably the rest of the season with a partially torn bicep and rotator cuff, we see 2024 Olympic team bronze medalist and 2026 NCAA All-Around Champion Richard as the one to put up a huge challenge to Hong’s 2025 title, along with 2020 Olympian Shane Wiskus. Also contending and back on the scene is veteran Yul Moldauer, who will look to make a statement in the run-up to the Games.
There’s no doubt Richard has momentum on his side as he continues to build his on and off the floor persona and show the world what men’s gymnastics is all about—elevating it as far as he possibly can in as many ways as he can. After a disappointing 2025 season where he didn’t qualify for the World Championships, Richard is locked in, winning another NCAA National All-Around title and the exclusive Nissen Emery Award. He’s as dialed in as ever and isn’t afraid to say it.
Richard took to social media to claim that not only will he be at Worlds this year, but he’ll be winning gold. “There will be a gold medal from Worlds around my neck,” Richard said. He’s still chasing his first U.S. All-Around title and we get the feeling that Phoenix will finally be his time.
We caught up with Richard in 2025 just before U.S. Championships and again on the final night of the 2026 NCAA Championships. See the story and more on Richard’s journey to this year’s U.S. Championships below.
For our full 2026 Xfinity U.S. Championships Senior Men’s Preview, Click Here!
Hail To The Victor
Since capturing the 2026 NCAA All-Around Championship and winning the 2026 Nissen Emery Award, Fred Richard has celebrated two huge milestones. And made one very bold statement. On May 5, he went on Instagram with a proclamation: “What’s next? This October, I’m calling it, there will be a gold medal from Worlds on my neck, probably AllAround [gold] – somehow!”
On May 9, he shared scenes from the delivery of long-awaited gymnastics equipment to Uganda—a promise fulfilled by a cause he championed with heart and soul just one year ago. And on May 21, he helped share in the excitement brought forth by the University of Michigan’s announcement that Michigan Men’s Gymnastics’ new $29 million training facility was approved by the Board of Regents. It’s been a whirlwind. And it’s only the beginning of Richard’s new era outside of the NCAA arena.
In Champaign at the 2026 NCAA Championships, all Richard needed to do was win to secure his NCAA legacy and put an exclamation mark on this chapter of his career. Which he did. His Michigan team finished third, and Richard’s love for them, and the Maize and Blue, never more apparent. “Looking back, I definitely have had the greatest college experience at Michigan,” he told the media following NCAA finals.
“It’s truly changed me, made me a better person, a healthier person, and has made my gymnastics so much better,” he said. “I feel like I have so much to look forward to in the future because of everything I’ve built at Michigan, and everything Michigan built through me. I have a lot of gratitude. I’m excited to just use it all and keep going.”
At the halfway point to LA, the 2028 Games’ storylines will ramp up this fall at the 2026 World Championships in Rotterdam. Richard is sure to be one of the headliners if he makes the team. His graduation, punctuated by an onstage backflip, marked the conclusion of his extraordinary, supremely decorated NCAA career and no doubt further fueled his goals going forward and his LA28 dream.
Michigan is where he’ll stay to make that dream come true. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“More hours. It’s funny, it’ll be harder training, more training, and it literally only excites me more. I’ll still be training at Michigan,” he told us. “I’ll still keep the same coaches. I’ll still have those same brothers by my side, but it’ll be two practices a day. It’ll be really all in, and I get to see what my full potential is in the sport. By 2028, can I bring home gold medals? I’m excited to go all in at it. It’s just around the corner, which is crazy.”
With a new quest to make the sport bigger than ever and to bring home more hardware for Team USA on the horizon, here’s a look at the major moments in Richard’s career so far, and the ways he’s changing the sport that’s officially now his full-time career.
Olympic Success Fuels An LA Gold-Medal Dream
Since making his Senior debut in 2022, Richard quickly cemented himself as a leader in men’s gymnastics in the U.S. He’s earned the respect for his accomplishments on and off the competition floor, as well as for his advocacy to grow the sport. At the Paris Olympics, he helped Team USA win their first Olympic Team medal since 2008, something he said he sensed would happen heading into the Team Final. Richard, a strong believer in feeling the energy and vibes before a big competition, told us he could sense that the team was destined for success.
“The night before winning the medal, we were just all together on the balcony in the Olympic Village, and I knew there that we were going to do something big the next day,” Richard said. Following their bronze medal-finish, Richard sent this message to men’s gymnastics around the globe: “My goal was to make a statement that the U.S. is getting stronger and stronger and we’re only going up. I think a lot of young boys watching are inspired by us. I was incredibly thankful and just proud of us.”
While winning the medal was historic and absolutely a dream come true, it’s really only the beginning of where Richard believes the U.S. men’s team could be by LA28. “It’s the first step,” he said in Paris, “the catalyst of going in that right direction of building the sport.”
Bringing The Noise
In 2025, Richard peaked at NCAAs, capturing the All-Around title while helping lead his Wolverines to their seventh NCAA Championship win. With Michigan coming into NCAAs as the underdog to Oklahoma and Stanford, Richard and his team put everything on the floor and built momentum all night—never once believing the win was out of reach. It brought a new notoriety to Richard, who had been simultaneously upping his social media game off the floor.
Being an advocate for growing the popularity of men’s gymnastics is equally as important to him. He launched a brand named “FrederickFlips” where he has gained nearly 1 million followers on Instagram and TikTok. The brand helped him promote the sport in different and unique ways as well as help the sport change for the better.
Then there was the question of apparel. Richard remembered how, growing up, he never felt comfortable in a typical gymnastics uniform. He wanted to make a change for the kids who now look up to him. At the 2025 Winter Cup, he debuted a new free-fitting uniform that could be seen as more inclusive and resembled a basketball uniform. “The goal is, everybody should be comfortable, confident,” Richard said. “I compete with confidence every time I compete. I wanted a uniform to reflect that, and I wanted the freedom to have the uniform that would reflect that for you.”
Richard acknowledged that the change of style was met with some criticism and, at times, intense scrutiny for his focus on a uniform. It also came at a competitive cost for Richard—three-tenths of a point knocked off of his All-Around score. He chose not to wear it during NCAA competition to avoid incurring any additional deductions for his team.
“We did a lot of research when I was making the uniform, and after Winter Cup,” Richard said. “Actually seeing the media, seeing how people respond, how different groups of people respond, understanding how some groups might be offended in what way. How do we please them or tailor to them? Because we wanted to be inclusive, how do we tailor to the judges and the deductions? It’s honestly been a very fun journey of trying to unite people.”
Global Impact
Since Richard’s rise in gymnastics, he’s always had bigger goals than winning medals. Two weeks following the 2025 NCAA Championships, he broke the Guinness World Record for the most standing back flips completed in 24 hours (he completed 1,111!), and he did it all while raising money to bring gymnastics equipment to children in Africa. The GoFundMe campaign raised more than $37,000 while Richard was flipping, exceeding $60,000 in the days after. With the equipment delivered in 2026, a new group of athletes can, as the post stated, “finally fly without concerns.”
“Every day I’m just reminded of it from something different,” Richard told us of being thought of as a role model. “I’m signing so many autographs right after the meet, all these kids who are inspired. They’re not just asking you to sign a shirt, they’re bringing posters that they made, they’re bringing pictures that they printed, things they’ve collected, bobbleheads, and I’m like, ‘wow, they’ve really been watching this journey the whole time.’ I’m getting letters, notes from kids who are saying they’re inspired to do gymnastics because of me. It just reminds me every day that there’s so much more to build, so much more to do.”
There’s no doubt Richard has momentum on his side as he continues to show the world what his brand of men’s gymnastics is all about — elevating it as far as he possibly can in as many ways as he can. He once said he wanted to be the Michael Jordan of gymnastics, telling us, “When I decide I want to do something, when I actually do it, it has an impact.”
“Let’s Do This Thing”
Winning the Nissen-Emery Award further defined Richard’s decorated career. The award honors the collegiate senior male gymnast who has not only established an outstanding record of achievement during his college career but also an athlete who has demonstrated good sportsmanship, fair play, and a high standard of athletic excellence.
“That just put me among the greats. So many legends in gymnastics, Olympic gold medalists, just champions got the Nissen-Emery Award. People have recognized everything I’ve done in the sport of gymnastics, and everything I’ve been trying to do, all of my goals,” he said. “Now, it feels ike everybody in the gymnastics community sees it and is supporting me. Now I get to live up to their expectations. I’m trying to prove to everybody right now, and that just feels good.”
Now, Richard wants gold in Rotterdam. After missing out on making Team USA as an individual for the 2025 World Championships, Richard is also still chasing his first U.S. National All-Around title. What he does in Phoenix at the Xfinity U.S. Championships will be huge when it comes to setting the pace for the next two years. The pressure is about to build for the quad, and only promises to ramp up with a home Olympics so close.
As for his proclamation for World gold, Richard went on to say, “I’m going to prove it. Because this time I’m locking in on gymnastics. I’m not traveling outside the country for the next six months. I’m excited to see what my full potential is. Let’s do this thing.”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.