'Face of US Men's Gymnastics': Social media buzzes for Frederick Richard of Massachusetts

STOUGHTON — Social media is buzzing Monday afternoon following Stoughton native Frederick Richard's Olympics high bar routine for the U.S. Men's Gymnastics Team.

Richard, a 2022 graduate of Stoughton High School who currently attends Michigan University, stuck his dismount from the high bar and scored 14.833.

More than 2,000 posts with Richard's name filled X, formerly Twitter, following the routine. He quickly rose to the fourth-most trending topic on the platform .

"HIS NAME IS FREDERICK RICHARD! ... The face of US Men’s gymnastics!," tweeted X user Danny Bennett .

Frederick and the rest of the U.S. team finished second in their subdivision during a qualifying round on Saturday. But the heat was turned up in the finals on Monday.

"Frederick Richard put Team USA on his back," X user Quinn Thomas wrote .

Many users simply reacted to Richard's performance with a " Wow. Just wow ," while others said he was changing the face of gymnastics forever.

"What Frederick Richard is doing for young Black men and gymnastics, is going to change the face of the sport forever," X user Sassington said . "And he's doing an immaculate job of being an example and behaving like a champion regardless of the outcome."

Richard's parents, Ann-Marie and Carl Richard, who are in Paris to cheer on their son, were shown on NBC cameras ecstatic after their son stuck his landing.

Richard's performance helped the U.S. Men's Gymnastics Team earn a bronze medal on Monday, the team's first Olympics medal since 2008.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: 'Face of US Men's Gymnastics': Social media buzzes for Frederick Richard of Massachusetts