U.S. males’s gymnastics medalist Fred Richard on how his sport can keep away from falling again into post-Olympics obscurity – NBC Chicago

• Males’s gymnastics had a breakout second on the Paris Olympics, and the U.S. nationwide workforce medaled for the primary time since 2008.
• Fred Richard, U.S. nationwide workforce bronze medalist, desires children to fall in love with the game, for athletes to achieve recognition and keep Olympic buzz, and finally, for the game to go skilled.  
• With hundreds of thousands of social followers throughout TikTok and Instagram, a signature bobblehead, and six-figure model offers throughout industries, Richard is crucial to that purpose.

With hundreds of thousands of “frederickflips” followers throughout TikTok and Instagram, a signature bobblehead, and six-figure model offers throughout industries, Frederick Richard, U.S. males’s gymnastics workforce bronze medalist, is a real standout who acknowledged his dream early in life: childhood pictures present him the wrong way up in a handstand in his crib. However after medaling on the Paris Olympics, Richard is targeted on leveraging his reputation to serve a higher long-term purpose: bringing his sport to a wider viewers.  

“I am actually keen about altering the assist across the sport,” Richard informed CNBC in an interview after the Olympics ended.

Within the social media age, constructing celeb may also help to construct a sport. Whereas constructing his personal model, Richard, a College of Michigan gymnast, seemed past his sport to leisure trade personalities. “I noticed the Kevin Harts and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnsons and the personalities that grew to become larger than what they really did. That they had their one expertise, they usually constructed the entire model off of that expertise,” Richard mentioned. 

Richard’s social media posts showcase a lighter facet of a severely troublesome sport: flip challenges, joking round in apply, fails, and stunts with excessive manufacturing worth. The game is “a online game with a billion ranges,” Richard informed NBC within the leadup to the Paris Video games. He has featured Olympic celebrity Simone Biles in challenges like diving for a soccer and leaping over containers two instances their top. And he has a workforce able to kickstart a manufacturing firm this fall.

That content material hopefully is just not solely driving extra eyeballs to the boys’s gymnastics, however individuals as properly. Solely 12,000 males have been registered with USA Gymnastics competitions in 2023, in comparison with 138,000 girls, in line with the AP. Males’s gymnastics persistently lags in reputation behind girls’s on the collegiate stage, the place meets are frequently televised, and on the worldwide stage. There are solely 12 Division I NCAA Males’s Gymnastics packages, and extra are vulnerable to cuts. However Richard desires children to affix and fall in love with the game, for athletes to achieve recognition and keep Olympic buzz, and finally, for the game to go skilled.  

Whereas the high-achieving U.S. girls’s workforce at all times garners large world consideration, the excitement is newer to the boys’s workforce, which earlier than successful a bronze medal on the Paris 2024 video games, had not received a workforce medal since 2008.

“In some way what we did that [team finals] day truly impressed lots of people and made them actually need to root for our journeys on this sport,” Richard mentioned. “I do not assume it is ever been a scenario the place that many individuals are watching males’s gymnastics … and left feeling prefer it was price it.”  

He says the rise in fan engagement attributable to the bronze medal generally is a turning level for males’s school gymnastics forward of the 2025 Worlds. “That is how the NCAA and all faculties have a look at every sport: Is it entertaining sufficient to herald income and maintain a program?” Richard informed NBC Olympics after the win. 

Social media has diminished the challenges in boosting publicity for largely non-professionalized, non-televised Olympics sports activities within the off years earlier than the subsequent video games, exemplified not solely by Richard however different standouts, similar to content material creator and USA girls’s rugby bronze medalist Ilona Maher who has hundreds of thousands of followers throughout social platforms. 

USA girls’s rugby obtained over $4 million in funding from investor and girls’s soccer membership proprietor Michele Kang after the Olympics.  

With a medal in hand and stars on the squad, the excitement round males’s gymnastics might doubtlessly increase funding. Gymnasts do not historically obtain a wage. It is all concerning the people. In 2023, Simone Biles, essentially the most embellished gymnast of all time, made $7.1 million — $7 million got here from endorsements, in line with Forbes estimates.  

In 2024, social media was key to elevating USA Males’s Gymnastics workforce tales and viral moments on the video games, just like the celebrations on the sidelines and the silent preparations for the medal-winning routine from pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik.  

A Northern Virginia fitness center that obtained one name per week of boys fascinated about becoming a member of the fitness center noticed over fifteen within the week after the workforce remaining and Stephen’s particular person bronze, in line with The Washington Put up. Health club house owners believed the households have been impressed by the relatable, smiling, and spectacled Nederoscik, coined “‘Clark Kent” by the web. 

Richard, a Massachusetts native, informed NBC Boston earlier than the Olympics that getting younger folks each competing and watching is crucial to constructing the game. 

Summer season Sanders, a triple Olympic medalist who leads efforts for athletes transitioning to post-Olympic careers, mentioned that the window to acquire sponsorships, which develop an athlete and sport’s viewers, is the widest for athletes with character, like Richard and Maher.  

“Particularly for those who’ve created a model that is perhaps barely out of your sport, who’re you as an individual… I feel they will reap the rewards,” Sanders just lately informed CNBC. 

As soon as identify, picture, and likeness offers have been opened as much as school athletes, Richard like many NCAA friends, was able to capitalize on it with entertaining content material. Throughout his freshman yr, Richard employed two videographers and commenced recording content material each day and producing it weekly. 

Now, he has offers with Marriott Worldwide, Crocs and Celsius power drinks, amongst others.

“We have a look at model offers as principally how is it going to get me nearer to that finish purpose [of growing the sport] not how’s it going to only put cash straight in my pocket,” Richard mentioned, who says he has shut household to handle his funds but additionally has admitted previously to spending a few of that newfound wealth on purchases not stunning for a school pupil. 

“Individuals who aren’t doing the game nonetheless must comply with it the identical manner folks comply with soccer, and nobody has touched a soccer, a whole lot of the followers,” Richard mentioned. “Lots of people in gymnastics are rising up beginning to have sort of my mindset,” he mentioned, referring to taking a inventive strategy to rising the game.

“All of us see it being executed with different sports activities leagues. I would like the identical for my sport, and so I am compelled to get a enterprise mindset, compelled to begin constructing issues out to make an impression,” Richard mentioned. “So long as folks like me come up within the sport, preserve doing issues like that, we’ll begin rising.” 

Disclosure: CNBC mum or dad NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports activities and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer season and Winter Video games by means of 2032.