Frederick Richard has always stood out from the lot! Trying to do something different, Richard had an incredible breakthrough coming to the Paris Olympics. He, along with his teammates Stephen Nedoriscik, Paul Juda, and others, helped the US men’s gymnastics team break a 16-year-old Olympic medal drought. And this achievement was indeed like a breath of fresh air for the sport. After all, sadly the interest in men’s gymnastics has been plummeting significantly in recent times!

Now, the Paris Olympics was not the first instance of the likes of Richard and Nedoroscik trying to promote the sport. Participating in the Dancing With The Stars reality show, Nedoroscik’s massive popularity helped the attention come back to mainstream men’s gymnastics significantly. Taking the help of his massive social media following of around 600K on Instagram alone, Richard too, has been inspiring youths. But, that’s not all! 

Now, en route to his mission of making men’s gymnastics mainstream again, Richard has come up with yet another venture. Wearing a loosely fitted tank top going against the conventionally worn tights by gymnasts, Richard is trying to bring in yet another change in men’s gymnastics. But, why? Richard opined that many young gymnasts might feel too shy to show off their bodies in tights to the public.

“I’m making this change for my 10-year-old self who felt awkward in tights and embarrassed to tell people I’m pursuing a “girls” sport. And for every kid who still feels that way today,” Fred Richard wrote on his Instagram post just a few hours back. He further added, “I’ve made it my goal to change this sport, because no young boy should feel these insecurities in a sport as amazing as this one.”

Thus, partnering with ‘Turn Gymnastics,’ an apparel and clothing brand, Richard will now be addressing the concerns of millions of young, aspiring gymnasts. According to him, the culture and the world have changed. And now is the time to finally break free from the stereotypes and focus on uplifting the quality of the sport as a whole. Thanking, Frederick ‘Turn Gymnastics,’ Richard concluded his post by saying, “The world and culture has changed… Now it’s time for the sport and the uniform to change as well. Thank you, @turngymnastics, for helping me push gymnastics forward. The new era of men’s gymnastics uniforms is coming…”

Surely, all these efforts from the likes of Stephen Nedoroscik and Fred Richard are expected to pay rich dividends. After all, who can forget how the entire gymnastics realm went berserk when Nedoroscik pulled off the Superman costume routine at the DWTS nearly four months back? And all of these hypes are indeed needed to push men’s gymnastics towards a better future. After all, there are some gruesome updates coming in for men’s gymnastics.

Men’s Gymnastics face crisis as Fred Richard and others continue to push forward

The FIG has announced that the number of elements contributing to the difficulty score will now stand at 8 instead of 10. This will be valid on all apparatus except for the vault. Next up, in the US, only 12 Division I Universities make an effort to sponsor the men’s gymnastics team. Trying to comply with the Title IX regulations, the number of US collegiate programs in men’s gymnastics has decreased from 150+ in the 1970s to only 12 in 2025! 

Making the transition even more sad, the likes of Cuba, who once established a stronghold on the sport, have not even competed in recent times. Cuban gymnastics’ current coach Damian Merino reflected on the good old days saying, “I competed in every Moncada tournament between 1989 and 1996, which were highly competitive due to the participation of top gymnasts from the socialist bloc.” 

Contrastingly, trying to shed light on the dark reality of the present day, Stephen Nedoroscik mentioned, “Men’s gymnastics is not going to cost you as much as you think. There’s so much talent in this country that will never be able to reach its true potential because people are cutting programs.” Thus, it is evident that the steps taken by Nedoroscik and Richard are extremely important. Now, it will be interesting to see how things pan out in the future.