The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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2025-26 YEAR IN REVIEW BY JOHN BORTON M ichigan men's gym- nastics and NCAA all-around champion Fred Richard reached the top of the mountain last year. When you've won the team national champi- onship in your own building featuring one of the strongest arrays of talent in Michigan history, where do you go from there? There's no way to go up. That's espe- cially true when half the squad is going elsewhere, having exhausted their eligi- bility. As for Richard personally, he just kept going. The senior captured his second con- secutive NCAA all-around champion- ship this season, and third of his four collegiate campaigns. He finished as the silver medalist in floor exercise and par- allel bars. He pulled in five All-America citations to add to the seven he garnered last year and 19 over the course of four seasons. Along the way, he became The Wol- verine's Male Athlete of the Year, as well as that for Michigan itself. "We pride ourselves as Michigan peo- ple, to be Michigan Men and leaders," the veteran out of Stoughton, Mass., offered. "I'm grateful to know that I'm seen as one of the top leaders in athlet- ics at Michigan. It's just crazy to think about. That's who they've made me into. The right atmosphere and the right people helped me grow up. I really do feel like I've become that leader, which is amazing." The decorated senior, who for all four years earned Big Ten Gymnast of the Championships, marvels when he re- flects upon how it all came together in Ann Arbor. "It is amazing," he said. "I just look back at my whole college career, think- ing about when I got recruited and was deciding among multiple schools. I was deciding between Michigan, Stanford, Penn State and Ohio State. I just had this good feeling when I came on this trip [to Michigan]. I could see by the coaches and teammates that this would be the right fit for me. "Now, after four years, you get to de- cide if it actually worked out. Clearly, it has. I've been on a national champi- onship team. I've won three all-around championships. More impressive than both of these, I think, is that I've stayed healthy all four years. I'm grateful for the coaches and teammates allowing me to thrive all these years." They all thrived in 2025, surging to a national championship clinched in none other than Crisler Arena. A year later, Richard led a squad ranked second na- tionally to a No. 3 finish at the NCAA Championships at State Farm Arena in Champaign, Ill. When asked if attempting a repeat trip to the top proved tougher than getting there last year, Richard's response stuck the landing. "It's far tougher, in my opinion, for a couple of reasons," he began. "National championships — and you see it across all sports — they're not won in one year. They're won in multiple years. A lot of the people who were on our team last year were fifth-years, having lost time after time after time, and that fire burns deeper and deeper each time. Finally, af- ter three misses for a lot of guys, two for me, we said we wanted this year. Those COVID years are going to go away. This is our last chance. We want to give it everything. "It was home, in Ann Arbor. We wanted to defend our home. All of those together really pulled us to that win. When you have the win, and you lose a lot of older people, it's tough. We lost 50 MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR FRED RICHARD 32 THE WOLVERINE ❱ AUGUST 2026 Fred Richard Leaves A Championship Legacy Richard posted a season-high all-around score of 83.598 at the NCAA Championships, topping second-place finisher Max Odden of Nebraska by 4.900 points. The Stoughton, Mass., native is the first Wolverine to win back-to-back all-around titles since Sam Mikulak in 2013-14. PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN PHOTOGRAPHY