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By Courtney Cole
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STOUGHTON, Massachusetts (WBZ) — Olympic medalist and Stoughton, Massachusetts native Frederick Richard may have broken the world record for the most backflips done in 24 hours.
Known as “Frederick Flips” on social media, the gymnast live-streamed his efforts to raise money for high-level gymnastics equipment for kids in Africa.
Broke record with 1,111 backflips
Richard needed to complete 1,002 backflips to claim the record and hoped to raise $100,000 in the process. He then kept going for another hour, completing 1,111 backflips.
Before doing his 1,001st and 1,002nd flips, Richard thanked his sister Alexandra for helping him organize the event while she was pregnant. He revealed she gave birth Saturday morning so he said he made sure to do the record-breaking flip the same day his nephew, Amir, was born. He added he would go visit them later on Saturday.
“We’ve broke down cost of what equipment I want to bring there. Mats, springboards, trampolines, mini trampolines. That’s to start them off,” said Richard. “Storage facilities, logistics of shipping. And that’s what it’s going to take to really make a big difference.”
“Fred has always been passionate about bringing more eyes to the sport of gymnastics and bringing more young boys into the sport and growing the sport,” said Richard’s mother, Ann-Marie. “I am just so proud of this boy, his focus, his passion.”
“The rest of my career is definitely going to be about helping kids that are underprivileged get those resources to do sports that they love to do, things that are fun and reach their full potential,” said Richard.
Providing gymnastics equipment for African children
“Gymnastics is not cheap. Equipment is expensive,” said Richard in a post on Instagram. “That’s why it’s so hard to get into. We’re trying to change that.”
The 21-year-old needed to average one flip per minute to keep on world record pace.
He said the hometown support means the world to him.
“Massachusetts has been a huge part. We’re actually doing this world record in the first gym that I started in,” said Richard. “It’s made this whole journey really fun, honestly a lot easier than it could have been without these people. So it’s been everything.”
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