“He deserved it!” called out Tom Fontecchio, the coach who threw him out of the gym but still coaches him to this day, from the crowd, as the hundreds gathered laughed.
It was a packed house in the auditorium for Frederick Richard Day, but it felt like a family reunion, especially during moments such as that one. In Boston for two dates of Simone Biles’s Gold Over America Tour at TD Garden, Richard was celebrated in an hour-long ceremony full of speeches, gifts, and a question and answer session.
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Richard drove to the ceremony in a community member’s lime green McLaren with a police escort. Entering the building to fanfare from the school’s marching band and cheerleaders, he quickly saw several of his teachers from the Dawe Elementary School waving his old school photos, and wrapped them in an embrace.
“It is extremely exciting to see someone go so far,” said Tracy Garrant, Richard’s kindergarten teacher. “We are extremely proud of him.”
Richard entered the auditorium to a standing ovation. American and Dominican flags (Richard’s mother Ann-Marie is from the Caribbean island of Dominica) waved through the crowd, and attendees donned Stoughton shirts from seemingly every one of the town’s schools and community organizations.
“Frederick is family to us,” said Debra Roberts, a member of the Stoughton select board and event organizer, once Richard made it to the stage. “He is from our town and we are sharing him with the rest of the world.”
The expressions of pride kept rolling. The Richard family’s priest from Stoughton’s Immaculate Conception Parish, Rev. Carlos D. Suarez, offered a prayer expressing thanks for Richard’s ability to “soar on wings like an eagle” and “gifts of fortitude and perseverance.”
Residents were asked to submit questions in advance to ask Richard during the event, and he answered a wide range of them, ranging to his start in the sport to his favorite spot in town (Amelia’s, an Italian restaurant where he worked as a teenager).
There were also questions for his parents, who shared the stage with him. When asked how to raise an Olympian, they were honest – it wasn’t their dream, it was his.
“He was already tough on himself,” said Ann-Marie Richard.
After the question and answer, honors and gifts came from all over Stoughton, as well as neighboring Randolph. Among the proclamations and gifts were a future ride in a select board member’s antique fire truck, a key to the town, and a pro wrestling-style championship belt presented by retired judge Francis T. Crimmins, Jr.
It was a ceremony that harkened back to the parades and celebrations of Olympians of decades ago, and that was the point.
“I can tell you, in this room right now, there are people who are on opposite sides of the political spectrum,” said Stoughton superintendent Dr. Joseph Baeta. “All of that is left aside to celebrate Frederick, his family, and the community. In this day and age with everything we’re seeing in the world, and all that we’re hearing, it makes this one time we can say we are a community.”
Richard was appreciative of the entire event. “It’s a full circle moment to see my hard work pay off and be appreciated,” Richard told the Globe on Friday. “I get to see the impact now. It’s nice to appreciate how far I’ve come and how I’ve impacted my town.”
In addition to Richard’s two nights at the TD Garden, he will visit 16 more cities on the tour, which meshes gymnastics “with a pop show,” he explained. Alongside several other members of the bronze medal-winning men’s gymnastics team and gold medal-winning women’s team, he speaks about his Olympic experience, takes part in an ode to Beyonce’s recent country music, and even gets to perform with professional dancers – a new twist for his career.
Richard is continuing his classes at the University of Michigan remotely during the tour, and will return to campus after it wraps up. Fontecchio, who consults with Richard’s coaches at Michigan, says they don’t expect Richard to compete in the all-around again until late in the college gymnastics season. With nagging injuries bugging Richard this past season, his coaches are playing the long game with the goal being the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Roberts expressed the hope that the town gets to do this entire celebration again after those Games. Richard hopes they get to as well, but he also wants his community to know any of them could achieve even more.
“I was sitting in those seats as well,” said Richard. “I dreamed really big, and you can too. You might feel weird that no one else is going for that big thing, but keep at it. Think big.”
Kat Cornetta can be reached at sportsgirlkat@gmail.com.
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Publish date : 2024-10-06 10:49:00
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