Stephen Nedoroscik placed third in the men’s pommel horse final at the 2024 Paris Olympics, earning the bronze medal.
The gymnast, 25, competed on Saturday, August 3, winning over the crowd in Paris, finishing behind Ireland’s Rhys McClenaghan and Kazakhstan’s Nariman Kurbanov.
After his family’s previous pleas for better seats, they were able to move closer to the pommel horse to watch him compete. “All the way, let’s go,” his sister screamed after his rotation.
Nedoroscik quickly won over viewers when he helped lead the U.S. men’s gymnastics team to their first Olympic medal in 16 years, securing the bronze on Monday, July 29, alongside teammates Brody Malone, Fred Richard, Asher Hong and Paul Juda.
Following that victory, Nedoroscik spoke to reporters about his winning performance. “It was just the greatest moment of my life, I think,” he said. “[I’m] so happy to have been there.”
Nedoroscik noted that he had a “really long day” waiting for his routine, which was the last on the lineup. “I framed that in my head as a positive, like, I can be the exclamation point,” he shared.
Nedoroscik received support from his teammates Malone and Juda, who were cheering him on as he prepared to do his part in the competition.
“I kind of, in that moment, was like, ‘Alright, let’s run in back, then. Let’s go out there and do our thing,’” he recalled. “I have [coach] Sam Mikulak as just, like, the greatest coach of all time. He’s up there, helping me keep the nerves in check. He knows exactly what to say to me. So when we got that chalk bucket, he kind of just settled me down and said, ‘You’re ready for this.’ I went up there, did my routine, and during that dismount, I was just, like, already smiling.”
Nedoroscik went viral after a photo of him relaxing as he waited for his turn became a meme.
“Obsessed with this one guy on the US men’s gymnastics team who looks like he’s getting his phd in anthropology and his only job is pommel horse,” one fan tweeted via X on Monday.
Viewers also appreciated how Nedoroscik removed his glasses for his routine, in a move that earned comparisons to Clark Kent.
“It’s not necessarily clear,” he told Today of his vision. “But the thing about pommel horse is if I keep [my glasses] on, they’re gonna fly somewhere.”
He added: “When I go up on the pommel horse, it’s all about feeling the equipment. I don’t even really see when I’m doing my gymnastics. It’s all in the hands — I can feel everything.”
As Nedoroscik’s popularity soared, his girlfriend, Tess McCracken, shared his reaction to the newfound attention, telling E! News on Thursday, August 1, that he was “taken aback” by the love he received.
“I was trying to show him things, like, ‘You’re a meme, you are viral. Look at all this stuff,’” she continued. “And he loved them. He laughed at them. And at that point, they were just starting. We didn’t know what it was about to turn into.”
