Three Michigan gymnasts bound for Paris Olympics

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (WOOD) — Three men’s gymnastics teammates from the University of Michigan will compete at the Paris Olympics — but they won’t all be teammates when they’re on the most prestigious stage in sports.

Paul Juda said his heart was racing at the Olympic Trials as he waited to learn if he would make Team USA.

“When your dream’s on the line, you do everything to achieve it,” Juda, a Michigan grad student, said. “I literally could not stand there still. I knew that there was a chance and, like I said before, there’s something on the line here. It’s your dream.”

Michigan junior Lais Najjar’s fate was even more up in the air: Syria chose him to be on its team with its one universal wildcard spot.

“The lack of guarantee definitely made me focus more on the gymnastics and not the result,” he said. “More of the process to get there and not what I would get in return. It was always going to be the love of the sport that took me there.”

But for Fred Richard, a Michigan sophomore, there was no doubt: He was always a favorite and led among all men at the end of the trials. Now he has a new goal.

“Of course I’m thinking about medaling. I’m thinking about gold medaling,” Richard said. “I feel like I’m the powerhouse wildcard, like this fresh kid that has this cocky mentality. ‘He’s going to come out. What’s he going to do?’ And I just get to do something crazy.”

Najjar and Juda are also making their first Olympic appearances.

“I’d love to say I’m sitting here saying, ‘medal, medal, medal,’ but I would be lying if I was saying that was my real goal,” Juda said. “Making the Olympics was such a huge, monumental accomplishment for me that now talking about medals would kind of take away from that step.”

This will be the first time Juda and Richard will compete against Najjar.

“I’m going to destroy him,” Richard joked. “It’s fun. You’re competing, but you’re not really competing. I’m rooting for him and he’s rooting for me.”

“It’s going to feel like we’re one team, even though we’re separated by nations,” Najjar said.

The athletes leave for Paris in a week.

“I just keep reliving that moment (when I made the team). When somebody addresses me as an Olympian, it freaks me out a little bit,” Juda said.

“A lot of my family’s in Syria and my immediate family is home. Any time I’m with them, it does feel like that. And I know when I step in the Olympic village, I’ll feel on top of the world,” Najjar said.

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