2024 Olympics: Who is Pommel Horse Gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik? Meet the Viral Star!
Fans are flipping out over the pommel horse guy at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Because when it was Stephen Nedoroscik's turn to shine at the one exercise he was brought to perform at the men's gymnastics final July 29, the athlete whipped his glasses off and almost effortlessly helped his U.S. team win their first medal in 16 years.
"The thing about pommel horse is," Nedoroscik told Today after the event of removing his spectacles, "if I keep them on, they’re gonna fly somewhere."
The 25-year-old has two eye conditions, which he has spoken about on social media before: Strabismus, or being cross-eyed, and coloboma, or missing eye tissue, which causes him to have light sensitivity. But Nedoroscik doesn't need to have perfect vision to perform his specialized form of gymnastics.
"When I go up on the pommel horse, it's all about feeling the equipment. I don't even see when I'm doing my gymnastics," the Penn State alum added to Today after Team USA took home bronze, in part thanks to his high-scoring pommel horse routine. "It's all in the hands. I can feel everything."
read2024 Olympics: Stephen Nedoroscik’s Girlfriend Tess McCracken “Almost Fainted” Over Pommel Horse Routine
Nedoroscik also explained the moment cameras caught him reclining with his eyes closed ahead of his performance.
"So in that moment, I'm doing my breathing exercises," the two-time NCAA Champion said. "We always try to keep our heart rate down. And through that five minutes I'm sitting there, I'm just visualizing my routine over and over again."
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And, yes, the athlete has seen the memes comparing him to Superman alter-ego Clark Kent. "I think they're awesome," he said. "I'm representing the people that wear glasses well."
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While many on social media hail him a gymnastics hero, the Worcester, Mass. native said after the medal ceremony that his team had given him positive momentum to ace that final performance.
“These guys did that to the T, especially on vault,” he told NBC Sports’ Mike Tirico after the final. “You could get goosebumps from watching that back. And going out on pommel horse—last guy up in the whole competition—I had a good feeling that our team was in a great spot.”
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He added, “I was like, ‘Let’s just get it done, let’s go for it. If I put this dismount up, team USA gets a medal.’ And I think you could see it, right away when I land: goosebumps, the best moment of my life.”
And his girlfriend could not be prouder. “I was so lightheaded from the screaming that I nearly fainted,” Tess McCracken, 26, told NBC News July 30, noting she was mentally telling Nedoroscik, “‘Stay on the horse.’”
Describing the athlete as a “goofy guy,” McCracken also expressed support for her boyfriend's newfound fame as a viral star.
“Blowing up on the internet has been such an unexpected side effect of this whole adventure,” she said. “It has been one of the best times.”
(E!, Today and NBC News are part of the NBCUniversal family.)
Read on to find out more about Team USA at the 2024 Olympics…
Watch the 2024 Paris Olympics daily on NBC and Peacock until the summer games end with the Closing Ceremony on Sunday, Aug. 11, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.