Team USA Gymnast Fred Richard Forgets Girlfriend’s Olympic Tickets—After She Flew All The Way To Paris
Team USA Gymnast Fred Richard Forgets Girlfriend’s Olympic Tickets—After She Flew All The Way To Paris
Fred Richard’s Olympic experience had a memorable twist—one he might never live down.
Before securing a bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Team USA gymnast Fred Richard, 20, found himself in a bit of a predicament. In an interview, Richard admitted to a significant oversight regarding his girlfriend’s trip to see him compete.
He stated,
“My girlfriend, she goes to the University of Michigan, she flew up to see me in Paris for the team final, but I forgot to get her tickets because I was busy.”
Fred Richard’s girlfriend assumed she had tickets, but when she arrived in Paris, she realized they weren’t arranged:
“She flew up, landed there and then the night before she texted me like, ‘I don’t want to bother you too much, I know you’re locking in. But don’t forget to send me the tickets.’”
To make matters worse, she wasn’t alone—her father had accompanied her on the trip.
Richard jokingly admitted,
“Yeah, I messed up big time on that one.”
As the situation escalated into what he described as a crisis, Richard urgently texted his agent, pleading,
“Please fix this.”
With the competition approaching, Richard went off the grid, turning off his phone and hoping for the best:
“I locked in for competition. I was just hoping she’d show up.”
Fortunately, Richard’s agent came through, securing “some good seats” for his girlfriend and her father to watch him and the men’s gymnastics team earn the bronze medal—a significant achievement as it marked Team USA’s first team all-around medal since 2008.
Despite the happy ending, Richard, who is typically private about his relationship and doesn’t appear to have publicly identified his girlfriend, knows he won’t live this down anytime soon, saying,
“Oh, I’ve already been hearing about it.”
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