Three gymnasts from Michigan on their way to the Olympic Games in Paris

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (WOOD) — Three University of Michigan gymnast teammates will compete in the Paris Olympics — but they won’t all be teammates when they stand on the sport’s most prestigious stage.

Paul Juda said his heart was racing during Olympic qualifying matches as he waited to hear if he would make the U.S. team.

“When your dream is on the line, you do whatever it takes to achieve it,” said Juda, a Michigan graduate. “I literally couldn’t stand still. I knew there was an opportunity and, like I said, there’s something at stake here. It’s your dream.”

The fate of Michigan junior Lais Najjar was even more uncertain: Syria selected him for its team with its only universal wildcard spot.

“The lack of guarantees definitely made me more focused on gymnastics and not the outcome,” he said. “More on the process of getting there and not what I would get in return. It was always the love of the sport that got me there.”

But for Fred Richard, a sophomore at Michigan State, there was no doubt: He was always a favorite and was the leader among all men at the end of the trials. Now he has a new goal.

“Of course I think about medals. I think about gold medals,” Richard said. “I feel like a wildcard powerhouse, like this fresh guy with this cocky attitude. ‘He’s going to come out. What’s he going to do?’ And I get to just do something crazy.”

For Najjar and Juda, it is also their first appearance at the Olympic Games.

“I would love to say I’m sitting here saying ‘medal, medal, medal,’ but I’d be lying if I said that was my true goal,” Juda said. “Going to the Olympics was such a huge, monumental accomplishment for me that talking about medals would somehow diminish that step.”

This will be the first time Judah and Richard face Najjar.

“I’m going to crush him,” Richard joked. “It’s fun. You compete, but you don’t really compete. I’m rooting for him and he’s rooting for me.”

“It will feel like we are one team, even if the nations separate us,” Najjar said.

The athletes will travel to Paris in a week.

“I relive that moment (when I made the team) all the time. When someone talks to me as an Olympian, I freak out a little bit,” Juda said.

“A lot of my family is in Syria and my immediate family is at home. Every time I’m with them, it feels like that. And I know when I walk into the Olympic Village, I’m going to feel like I’m on cloud nine,” Najjar said.