Richard was born on April 23, 2004, in Boston, Massachusetts. His father, Carl, is Haitian and his mother, Ann-Marie Richard, is Dominican.[3] He has two brothers and one sister: Carlton, Alexandra, and Kevin.
He started with gymnastics at age four.[4] He was affiliated with Massachusetts Elite Gymnastics Academy and attended Stoughton High School. He later attended the University of Michigan where he continued to pursue gymnastics.
Gymnastics career
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.[5] 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.[6] The majority of competitions for the rest of the year were canceled 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.[7] He was named to the team to compete at the Junior Pan American Championships.[8] While there he helped the United States win gold as a team. He won gold in the all-around and on vault and horizontal bar. Additionally, he won silver on floor exercise and bronze on rings.[9]
2022
Richard became age-eligible to compete at the senior level in 2022 but remained 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.[10] 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.[11] During event finals Richard won gold on floor exercise, rings, and vault, silver on parallel bars, and bronze on pommel horse.[12]
Although he competed at the junior level internationally, Richard competed in the senior division in domestic competitions. He competed in 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.[13]
At the World Championships, Richard contributed scores in 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.[19]
In June, Richard competed at the U.S. Olympic Trials, where he placed first all-around (170.500),[22] 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 horizontal bar (28.850).[23] 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.[24]
During the qualification round, Richard competed on all apparatuses, helping the USA qualify to the team final in fifth place; individually, he qualified for the all-around final in tenth place and was the third reserve for the horizontal bar final.[25] During the team final, he contributed scores on floor exercise, rings, parallel bars, and horizontal bar towards the USA's bronze medal finish.[26] In the all-around final, Richard finished in fifteenth place after shaky performances on pommel horse and floor exercise.[27]
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.[13][29] As of May 2024, he had a total of 900,000 followers across his TikTok and Instagram accounts.[30] Richard was honored by Time as one of the world's most influential emerging stars in October 2024.[31]
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