It seems to be fate intertwined with the paths of Simone Biles and Fred Richard. On one side of the coin, Biles was bright and bubbly child, couldn’t sit still and loved spending hours flipping and twisting on the trampoline in her grandparents’ backyard. She was interested in the day-care field trip to Bannon’s Gymnastics, at the age of six, and she trained under the tutelage of her coach, Aimee Boorman. Perfecting her game gradually, it saw compete at the elite level in 2011. Conversely, 20-year-old Fred Richard, too, is pinning badges to his lapels steadily.
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Likening him to Biles, Richard too had already showed an inclination at a nascent age by watching gymnasts practicing their routines and staring up in fascination, hoping to emulate them one day with his sinews. At 19 years old, he became the youngest male gymnast in U.S. history to win a bronze medal at the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, making him the first American person of color to achieve this accomplishment. However, his love for the sport is tied to his childhood home.
Fred Richard in an interview with Time Magazine has laid out how he got his start in the sport. His mother, Anne-Marie Richard, said, he “literally flipped out of his crib,” and also added, “He was always upside down.” A young Fred observed the gymnasts in his older sister Alexandra’s gym and was fascinated. He would imitate the moves he saw back at his parents’ house. Fred Richard said, “I tried it on my parents’ bed and landed on my head a couple of times, so my parents figured they had better put me in some classes.”
Simone Biles faced a crucial moment when her coach left Bannon’s Gymnastix. She was attached to her coach and hesitant about training under someone else, even if it was her mother, Nellie Biles. Nellie sold her nursing homes to fund a gym for the girls to continue training under Aimee Boorman, but the process was more challenging than expected. She shared, “I had no idea how complicated the whole process would be. It wasn’t anything like the nursing home business.” The experience was quite different from Nellie’s previous business ventures, leading her to express, “If I’d known what wе wеrе gеtting into, wе would nеvеr havе donе this.” But this challenging endeavor led to Biles becoming the unstoppable force she is today, having hosted the Simone Biles Invitational.
After Simone Biles achieved unprecedented success at the 2016 Rio Olympics, her coach Boorman told PEOPLE, “I will always be willing to coach her”,“I will be there as a mentor.” On the other hand, Richard competed at his first elite-level National Championships in 2019, finishing eighth overall but earning a bronze medal in floor exercise behind Nick Kuebler and Khoi Young. Later on, despite being younger than their peers, both quickly surpassed in skill level, mastering advanced techniques that surprised their coaches. However, they also faced setbacks, just as Biles, Richard suffered back injuries that required lengthy recoveries. How does the behemoth games look for them?