Two gymnasts from Massachusetts are competing in their first Olympics in Paris, poised to help the U.S. men's team do something it hasn't done since 2008.
Stoughton native Fred Richard and Worcester native Stephen Nedoroscik have both been dreaming of becoming Olympians since they were little.
When he was a middle school student in Stoughton, Richard was named most likely to become an Olympian. Six years later, that dream came true. He spoke with NBC10 Boston after he learned he made it onto Team USA at the gymnastics trials.
"Honestly, I think tonight was all about, like, gratitude and gratefulness," he said. "Remembering my younger self and how proud he would be for me to be in this position today."
He's been working towards this moment almost his whole life, starting gymnastics at the age of 2.
He says he hopes his success can help open doors for more kids to try the sport.
"When I leave the sport, which is like in 10 years, I want there to be 20 times more kids in the sport," Richard said. "I want way more gyms, I want way more Black kids in the gym, and I just want kids to know that, like, the highest level of gymnastics is just similar to the highest level of basketball or football, you know, you can be a star."
His love for gymnastics exudes through his social media, where he invites people into his world.
Becoming an Olympian is also a childhood dream come true for Nedoroscik.
"People told me, 'One day, you're going to be an Olympian!' and you know, back then, I was just a dorky little kid, and now look at me, I'm a dorky adult," he said. "Going to the Olympics!"
Since high school, Nedoroscik has dedicated himself to one event — the pommel horse — becoming one of the best athletes in the world on the apparatus.
"There's something freeing about pommel horse for me, I've always kind of had that knack for it, where I've had, like, a decent swing," he said. "The thing about pommel horse is it's one of the events where, like, you can kind of make a skill within a week of doing it, but to perfect the skill, it takes like two years … It's one of those things that's just like a very long and hard journey, but like, at the end of it, it's super fulfilling."
The four-time national pommel horse champion brings expertise on an event that is notoriously difficult, but Nedoroscik remains humble about his talent and the dedication it takes to bet on yourself and succeed.
Nedoroscik and Richard hope to help the U.S. men's gymnastics squad win their first team medal since Beijing in 2008.
