Frederick Richard headlines Paris team after U.S. Olympic Team Trials victory
With their Olympic dreams on the line, the best of Team USA's men's gymnasts delivered soaring performances Saturday (29 July) at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for gymnastics.
The two days of competition saw University of Michigan standout Frederick Richard top the all-around standings, earning a 170.500 total. He also finished with three, top three apparatus finishes, locking his spot on the U.S. Olympic team for the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
It will be the 2023 world all-around bronze medallist's debut at the Games.
"I'm flipping to Paris, let's go!" Richard said afterward. "I think tonight was all about gratitude and gratefulness, remembering my younger self and how proud he would be for me to be in this position today. I just felt like today was a celebration, party and just all about gratitude."
Tokyo 2020 Olympians Brody Malone, who tallied 170.300, and Shane Wiskus (169.650) were second and third, respectively.
The battle to join Richard was intense as the U.S. looks to field the best-scoring team for Paris' three-up, three-count team final and climb back onto the podium after missing out at three consecutive Games.
The near capacity crowd inside Minneapolis' Target Center were treated to a barrage of spectacular routines in the opening moments of competition, as Khoi Young (15.100), Asher Hong (15.250) and Donnell Whittenburg (14.900) began to make their final cases for a maiden trip to the Olympics.
Tension filled the arena as fans waited to see who would be headed to the French capital in less than a month.
Twenty minutes after competition wrapped up, the U.S. federation announced that Malone, Hong, Paul Juda and Stephen Nedoroscik would join Richard in Paris.
Men's competition at the Games is set to begin with the qualifying round on Saturday, 27 July.
Paul Juda on Olympic goal doubts: "I was starting to think if I should erase the one that said 'Olympian'"
An emotional Juda said he had doubted whether this moment - a goal represented by 'become an Olympian' on his whiteboard of goals - was possible.
He'd come up short earlier in the season of goals he'd made for his collegiate season where he comes with Richard at Michigan. But he persevered.
"I was starting to think if I should erase the one that said Olympian because maybe it won't come true," said a tearful Juda. "But I going home and I'm gonna put a massive check mark on there."
The 22-year-old, who was a member of last year's World Championships team, finished fourth in the all-around in Minneapolis. His best apparatus finish came on the floor exercise where he was second.
A bounce back for Asher Hong
That Hong heads to Paris could feel like destiny.
He was a talented junior athlete that the sport seemed to be waiting to make his mark. His global debut in 2022 saw him earn an impressive sixth place all-around at the World Championships.
But a less stellar U.S. championships performance - and scores - earlier this month left him frustrustrated.
He went home with a mission: give the judges nothing to take from him.
"I felt like some of the scores were a little bit unfair," admitted Hong of the U.S. nationals. "I could have either got upset and then given up there or I could have had been like, 'You know what? That's something that's not in my control. All I can control is my performance.
"And honestly, like visualizing this week, after every visualization, I was like, 'What are you [judges] going to write on that paper? What, you going to write that paper? Nothing. Nothing.' It felt like it was kind of like a a battle between me and the judges."
It's a battle that won Hong a ticket to the Olympics.