NEED TO KNOW
During the U.S. Championships this weekend, a men’s gymnast wore gym shorts with leggings instead of the traditional men’s stirrups that gymnasts usually wear
The gymnast, Frederick Richard, said he’s trying to start a trend and make gymnastics change its rules for uniform requirements
Richard said he hopes a rule change can make the sport more accessible to the younger generation of boys in sports
A men’s U.S. gymnast is taking a big risk to make what he believes is an even bigger statement.
U.S. men’s gymnast Frederick Richard knowingly took a three-tenths (0.3) point reduction at the U.S. Championships on Saturday, Aug. 9, in order to wear gym shorts with compression leggings underneath instead of the classic men’s gymnastic stirrups that have long been worn by competitors in the sport, according to the Associated Press.
Richard, 21, told members of the media afterward that he plans to continue taking the point deduction in an effort to try and lead a massive change in the sport’s uniform requirements.
“It’s 1,000% worth it,” Richard told reporters, according to the AP. “If you look at these kids in the crowd, I’m thinking about them and I’m thinking about when I was younger.”
Richard, who also competes in gymnastics at the University of Michigan, took second place this weekend at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships by just .305 points, meaning the purposeful uniform deduction nearly cost him his placement on the podium.
Gerald Herbert/AP Photo
Frederick Richard
According to the AP, Richard — who designed his own alternative to the stirrups in collaboration with the apparel company Turn — said he’s always taken issue with the pants required by rule and said he was always embarrassed about wearing them outside the gym when he was growing up.
“If I left the gym to go to the gas station, I didn’t want anybody to see me in my pommel horse pants,” Richard said, according to the AP. “Kids would say, ‘Do you do gymnastics?’ I’d say ‘Yeah.’ But I didn’t want them to search ‘gymnast’ and see the uniform. I didn’t feel like it was cool.”
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Yahoo! Sports also reported that Richard believes a uniform change can make the sport more accessible, and therefore grow the sport among the younger generation.
The Boston native said making the uniform more “cool” could possibly help keep kids in the sport as they grow older.
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“It does add to what makes a 12-year-old boy decide, ‘Do I want to keep doing this sport? Or should I play football or soccer, because my friends think I’m cool when I play with them?’ ” Richard said, according to Yahoo.
“[I want them to] see this, and they’re like, ‘This is cool. I want to wear this. This kid is trying to make the sport cool, he looks cool,’ ” Richard added. “And that’s the stuff that gets kids into the sport, that’s stuff that keeps kids in the sport.”
Read the original article on People
