Olympic Gymnast Suni Lee shares why she is making a comeback
Olympic Gymnast Suni Lee describes how she knew she was going to make a comeback and why she decided to create a documentary at the ESPYs 2026 carpet.
PHOENIX — Olympic bronze medalist Fred Richard has a new title.
Richard handily won his first all-around title at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships Saturday, Aug. 8. His two-day combined score of 170.015 was two points ahead of Tokyo Olympian Shane Wiskus. Up-and-comer Danila Leykin was third, at 167.001 points.
Richard was all but assured of winning the title after Leykin botched his floor routine, the second event of the night. Richard just needed to be clean the rest of the night, which he was, putting up solid scores on every event. After landing his vault, his final event, Richard threw his arms wide and roared, a huge grin on his face.
“I feel like it’s one of those things that was on the list of (what) I haven’t done, and I need to kind of prove that I can win the US championships,” said Richard, a three-time NCAA champion and member of the U.S. team that won the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics.
“… It shows that everything I’m doing in the gym is working,” Richard said. “The coaches around me, my teammates — everything is lined up. I’m on the right track for worlds this year and then 2028 in two years.”
Richard didn’t lock his spot on the U.S. team for the world championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands — he also needed to finish in the top three on three or more events and only did that on floor exercise — but is all but assured of being on the five-man team that will be announced later Saturday.
Though there is little doubt Richard is one of the country’s best gymnasts, a U.S. title had eluded him. He was third in 2023, and the runner-up the last two years. With defending champion Asher Hong injured and three-time U.S. champion Brody Malone taking the year off, however, Richard was the heavy favorite coming into the meet.
The 19-year-old Leykin made things interesting, however, finishing the first night just 0.153 points behind Richard. He didn’t waste any time throwing down a challenge to Richard on Saturday, performing a dazzling high bar routine that drew oohs and aahs from the crowd. His score, a 14.963, actually moved him ahead of Richard.
But the battle between the two ended on the next event. Leykin was low on his first tumbling pass on floor exercise, nearly landing on his knees. His feet slipped out from under him on the landing of his second, and he plopped to the floor. His 11.65 dropped him three points behind Richard, effectively ending his hopes for the title.
Still, Leykin didn’t stop fighting. He rebounded with a sharp performance on pommel horse, and closed with the second-best parallel bars routine of the night.
“It was really cool. After day one, it was pretty cool to see myself in second place closely behind Fred,” Leykin said. “It’s a little more real. A little more real in the sense that like, `Oh, these dreams are kind of slowly becoming a reality.’ And the main difference is now I see like, `Oh, it’s really possible here. We’re in the mix.'”
Back in the mix is Wiskus, who took time off after not making the Paris team.
The Tokyo Olympian is approaching this go-around with a different mindset, focusing on enjoying himself because he knows he won’t always be able to do the sport he loves.
“Putting 12 routines together and competing the way that you trained and having that moment after the routine to celebrate and have that sigh of relief, those are the feelings that I’m chasing. And those are the feelings that I know I’ll never get anywhere else except for gymnastics,” Wiskus said. “I’m sure I’ll have great, beautiful moments in my life outside of gymnastics, but I know that the feeling that I had after p-bars, I probably won’t feel that after I’m done with all this. So it was really nice to get to feel that again.”