Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Paul Juda won a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics with the U.S. men’s gymnastics team this past summer, alongside his teammates Stephen Nedoroscik, Frederick Richard, Brody Malone and Asher Hong. Their efforts ended a 16-year medal drought for the American men’s team. Juda, a native of Deerfield, Ill., also competes for the University of Michigan Wolverines, where he has won three individual NCAA championships. He is touring around the country with Simone Biles’ Gold Over America Tour, which stopped in Boston on Oct. 6 and 7.
Juda sat down for an interview with the Daily before the Gold Over America Tour stopped in Boston.
Tufts Daily (TD): What has it been like to be on tour?
Paul Juda (PJ): I got invited for the Gold Over America Tour the second day of [Olympic] Trials. I think the best part about the tour is twofold. It comes first with the crowd, that we have almost 10,000, 11,000 people coming to watch us and it’s packed like sardines.
The second part, obviously, is the people that we get to spend it with. Every single guy on that team is really, really close. We’re getting closer every single day. We’re spending a lot of time together. We sleep in these bunks on the sleeper bus; we’re on the bus like 14, 15 hours a day. It’s fun.
Every single competition, you go there and you dap up a guy, and you say, “Hey, how’s it going? Hope you’re feeling good.” But, at the heart of it, you’re like, “I still want to beat you, I’m here to try and win a competition.” So, for this, it’s kind of like “Hey, how are you doing today? You’re doing good, great. Let’s put on a great show.” So, I think the best part is the crowd — to be able to put on that kind of show — and definitely the people we’re spending it with.
TD: What was it like representing your country at the Olympics?
PJ: It’s a dream come true. I was kind of the guy that was on the outskirts and looking in. To have my family there and my friends, to have such a successful meet and to have a medal and to watch the medal get brought to you on a silver platter … you’re like, “This is huge!” I think that’s going to always be burned into my memory. That is the best time of my life. When the flag was getting raised, I know it wasn’t gold, but it felt like it in that moment. We put gymnastics back on the map.
TD: How do you balance your academic responsibilities with your athletic responsibilities as a student-athlete at Michigan?
PJ: When I’m in the classroom, I’m going to be fully in the classroom. I’m not going to slack. I’m not going to miss class if I don’t need to for athletics. And when I’m in the classroom, I’m pushing hard. I want to educate myself, and I want to learn what this university has to provide for me. I pride myself on going to the University of Michigan; it’s a tough school with a lot of really smart people. There are a lot of really, really difficult classes that you don’t just get to slap through. I’ve always believed that being a student-athlete comes with a dual title: You are a student and you are an athlete. But, I also believe that if you want to achieve excellence, you have to be great in all avenues that you pursue. So for me, school is one of those places where you have to be diligent and you have to be pushing forward.
TD: Do you plan to continue training and competing in elite gymnastics?
PJ: I don’t know, we’ll figure that one out. … I’m taking it one day at a time. Sometimes, I teeter-totter, but I’m taking my time. I really like this tour, and I really like the NCAA season, and I really just want to finish that on a high note.
TD: How do you think the recent popularity of men’s gymnastics will affect the future of the sport?
PJ: I have no idea what it’s going to do right now. I would love to see, in the beginning, at least some of this attention translated into younger gymnasts starting the sport, and younger gymnasts pushing club gyms to stay open and not have to close down, and then those club gyms have more influx of boys at the high school level, and then more high school level boys being able to be like, “Hey, I want to go to college for this.”
In a follow-up email to the Daily, Juda commented on the role his parents have played in his career.
PJ: My parents have been the sole reason for my success in life. My parents are both immigrants from Poland. They came here with the dream and aspiration to make life for their kids better than the ones they had when they were growing up. For me, my parents made the ultimate sacrifice by trying to start a new life in a new world with a language they knew little to none of. They worked their entire lives to provide for my siblings and me. And they showed me what the term “hard work” really means. Whenever I get sluggish, or I have a blip in my motivation, I remember that my parents worked too hard for me to disregard their sacrifices. I love my parents with my entire heart and they have always been the ones that tell me to just do gymnastics as long as I love it. They’ve never expected anything of me and have only been supporting role models for me. Regardless if I won the competition or if I came dead last, my parents’ love for me was never in question and I think that’s what's allowed me to succeed!
