Olympic gymnast Fred Richard is determined to “change” the sport, and his next focus is on the restrictive uniforms.

“When I grew up, I wanted to be the superhero of gymnastics, just doing things that no one thought was possible,” said Richard in a video for The Players’ Tribune ahead of his appearance at the 2025 Winter Cup, which begins on Friday, Feb. 21. “But I felt like, ‘Why are we in tights? Why do we look like this?’ I just decided one day that it’s me that has to make these changes.”

Richard caught global attention during the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, when he and Team USA gymnastics won bronze, their first podium finish since 2008. The youngest on the squad at just 20 years old, Richard told PEOPLE before the big medal win that he is going to be the “future of gymnastics.”

“My biggest goal is by the end of this Olympics, number one, I guess everybody starts to know who I am and realize, okay, this kid is the future of gymnastics and for the next coming Olympics he's going to be something big,” Richard told PEOPLE in July 2024.

“It's kind of like my, 'Hello world.' I got that from Tiger Woods. It's kind of just telling the world that you are going to be something special,” Richard said.

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That same confidence is driving his decision to change his uniform at the 2025 Winter Cup, which serves as a qualifying meet for the U.S. National Championships, even though he’ll automatically lose points, regardless of his performance on the mat.

“I think if you asked my parents, I think they would tell you that I was destined to stand out,” says Richard, who is also a student at the University of Michigan, in The Players’ Tribune video. “You’ve got struggles where you’re the only Black kid competing. There’s five boys in the gym with 100 kids, 90 girls, and you’re struggling with this restricted, uncomfortable uniform.”

Richard explains that he watched basketball legend Michael Jordan challenge uniform requirements, and hopes to do the same. (Jordan famously was fined $5,000 every time he wore his signature black and red Nikes, a direct violation of the NBA’s former uniform requirements.)

“But look what he built,” says Richard of Jordan in the video. “ I have these same obstacles, these same tests.”

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In a Feb. 20 Instagram post, the 2023 U.S. Championships high bar champion outlined the three pieces of a gymnast’s standard uniform he will change for the upcoming meet. He targeted pommel horse pants, unitards, and the “tight tank top.”

“We can make it way looser,” he said in the post, “but still will show everything it needs to show, look clean.”

Richard said that he’s ready for the criticism.

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“But I’m going to be deducted for wearing this uniform,” he said on Instagram. “So, I’ll have to still perform really well and I’m going to have to pop off, so I can still win.”

The uniform change is part of the vision Richard has for his legacy.

“Olympics is one step of the bigger process. Most people will imagine it to be the peak,” Richard told PEOPLE at the Olympic Games. “But my biggest goals are bringing eyes to the sport, growing the sport, representing my community and inspiring young Black kids like me. And so the Olympics is just one other stepping stone.”

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