During the final days of 2025, Olympic gymnast Fred Richard’s idea of a “National Backflip Day” got attention from none other than Noah Lyles. The American track and field star, known for his charismatic way of doing things his way, chimed in on the idea and posted a single Instagram story, saying, “What’s up, Freddie… this is for you, man,” before launching into a backflip!

Now, just a few days later, Richard posted a new Instagram video, and gave an update about his idea. “Alright, the final announcement. Guys, we still got a National Backflip Day,” Richard said, confirming that the efforts of everyone involved in this idea have come to fruition.

“This Team USA still did have the power to make this happen. They by the end of it said this was really amazing what we did. It’s just the beginning. Every year from now on, 12-21 will be a national backflip day. We got a whole year to plan this time around. I want to get to 50,000 backflips on national backflip day next year. But we got a national backflip day!”

Furthermore, the Olympic gymnast talked about the efforts that the community made, saying, “Throughout the whole day I was staring at different submissions. We brought together a community. We still did raise a good amount of money also on that day. Every backflip submitted was a dollar donated to the Team USA Foundation.”

So, on December 21, 2025, Richard hosted a live stream with a goal of just 10,000 flips, as a generous United States Olympic & Paralympic Foundation (USOPF) NextGen Council donor decided to donate $1 for every backflip, up to $10,000. This initiative was huge, as the money raised would directly go to the Team USA fund, helping American athletes. And what began just as a social media challenge became reality.

Richard also set a goal for the 2026 National Backflip Day, which will be celebrated on December 21 this year. This whole initiative just showed how close-knit the community is. And apart from Noah Lyles, there was a future-Olympian who also helped Richard reach this massive goal.

Just like Noah Lyles, Ilia Malinin also contributed his time to Richard’s new holiday

Fred Richard was joined by Ilia Mahinin in the gym before the “National Backflip Day” was officially confirmed. Well, for the World Champion figure skater, doing a few backflips was not an issue. And yes, there was a certain challenge for the two athletes.

For Richard, he had to commit Malinin’s figure skating backflip, which was a standard one-rotation acrobatic flip, which the figure skater often does on the ice. On the other hand, Malinin was tasked with Richard’s challenging gymnastics flip, which was a round-off back full. So, who went first?

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It was the Olympic gymnast who attempted the flip first, and Malinin gave him a 9/10. And when it came to the figure skater, he completed the round-off full and earned a 9.99/10 from Richard.

The whole narrative around the “National Backflip Day” really isn’t about a holiday, but it just shows how well the entire Olympic community is connected together.