US gymnast Frederick Richard studied abroad this summer, hoping to learn a few tricks from the Chinese and Japanese

Boston Globe

a day ago

'My goal is obviously to get to the highest level in my sport, to become the best,' said Richard. 'So I needed to train with the best.'
Over the last few decades, men's gymnastics has been dominated by China and Japan. The nations have won six of the last seven Olympic team competitions, with the other taking silver four times. The United States has tried to catch up, and took a big leap with the team bronze in Paris.
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The US men have tried several ways to level up with the two dominant countries in the sport. USA Gymnastics, the sport's national governing body, enacted a bonus scoring system in domestic competitions to encourage difficulty. It revised team selection procedures multiple times, trying to make criteria clearer (though critics say they are still murky). It increased the number of smaller international competitions entered to get gymnasts more exposure to how their skills and routines stacked up to others.
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What the US men had not tried, however, was training with the Chinese and Japanese. So that was what Richard, who finished 15th in the Olympic all-around after a third-place finish in the all-around at the 2023 World Championships, decided to do.
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Richard turned to his coach at Michigan, Yuan Xiao, a former Chinese gymnast himself, for guidance.
'He had the connections,' said Richard.
'We were excited and fully supportive of Fred's decision,' Xiao said of himself and his staff. 'Training in countries with such rich gymnastics traditions can offer a unique perspective and expose him to different techniques and philosophies.'
Seeking outside perspectives is not new to Richard, who began gymnastics at Somersault Gymnastics in Stoughton, a small gym led by longtime coach Tom Fontecchio. The well-connected Fontecchio would take Richard to gyms across the Commonwealth, hoping he would soak up the best instruction.
'It's something I definitely learned when I was younger,' said Richard. 'My coaches took me to gyms around our state to train with better kids than me.'
Not long after, Richard was the 'better kid.' For years, those in the local gymnastics community had high hopes, and once Richard began competing internationally, he began fulfilling them. Richard's World Championships all-around bronze in 2023, followed by the team bronze in Paris, were not surprising to longtime followers.
It was never a question that Richard's quest would go beyond the Paris Olympics, especially with the Games scheduled for Los Angeles in 2028. In LA, Richard would love to be on the all-around podium. Coming off last season, he knew something had to change.
Within three days of
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Then he learned that they don't necessarily train longer. They train smarter.
'They took me through their training day,' said Richard. 'They do six hours one day and then the next one, three hours. They switch off between those, which is like a hard day, easy day.'
The other difference? A substantive part of the Chinese team's practice was running routines, and that was the case all year, instead of just in competition season. They might not have had all of their difficult skills in the routine, depending on how close their next competition was, but they were doing routines. Richard and his fellow US gymnasts often work on just skills at different points in the year, and leave routine run-throughs for the collegiate or elite seasons.
It was a revelation for Richard, and he trained as his hosts did during his two weeks in China. He quickly saw improvements in endurance. Inspired, he emailed his Michigan teammates.
'I've been learning a lot from the Chinese system,' wrote Richard. 'I want to give updates throughout my trip on major things I'm noticing that our team can use to get ahead and thrive for another year … [doing routines daily] makes you perfect the basic skills and transition skills that are still in your real routine. It still keeps your endurance up. And it optimizes your body for your exact routine construction without taxing it … I think this is something that gets you three-10ths back in execution by [NCAA championships] next year.'
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Emailing his teammates wasn't something Xiao asked Richard to do. But his updates showed that he didn't view the trip as just improving his own gymnastics. He wanted to improve men's gymnastics in the US as a whole.
'[This trip] demonstrated his commitment to continuous growth, open-mindedness, and his desire to challenge himself on the international stage,' said Xiao.
From China, Richard traveled to Tokyo to train with the Japanese national team. He was interested in how they worked on skills, especially vault, an apparatus Richard is eager to improve. The Japanese also compete more often than the US, both domestically and internationally, so he wanted to see if they structured their training time differently than the Chinese.
After two weeks in Tokyo, Richard's 'study abroad' summer ended with spending time with the children and teenagers in Uganda he's raising money for.
As the US championships approach in New Orleans Aug. 7-10, Richard hopes his summer work pays off.
'After Fred returned to the US, he was already showing the results from this trip,' said Xiao, who will coach him at nationals.
'This year I definitely want to show that I can bridge the gap in difficulty with the other top all-arounders in the world,' said Richard.
Kat Cornetta can be reached at