PARIS — Fittingly, he tucked an American flag into the back of his sweatshirt collar, turning the stars and stripes into a cape. Stephen Nedoroscik is, after all, America’s new favorite superhero.
A star ripped straight from the Olympic script, Nedoroscik shines in a piece of equipment that the average sports fan has no idea how to distinguish a good routine from a bad one. He wears glasses because of a congenital eye disease that left his eyes permanently dilated, solves Rubik’s Cubes to relax, eats exactly six slices of a green apple and a chocolate muffin on game days, and laughs like he’s straight out of “Beavis and Butt-Head.”
As he sat down on the podium for his press conference after winning a second bronze medal, Nedoroscik took the index finger of his right hand and pushed his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose. The only thing missing from central casting — a piece of tape to hold them together.
But when Nedoroscik swings on the pommel horse and performs an exercise so clearly complex that even a beginner in gymnastics would know it’s good, he’s Clark Kent after the phone booth, taking off his glasses and transforming his entire being.
Stephen Nedoroscik finishes his horse routine in the final and the crowd goes WILD! 👏 #Olympic Games in Paris
📺 E! and Pauw photo.twitter.com/JbCPmqNJA7
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 3, 2024
Six nights ago, Nedoroscik nailed his routine—the very last of the night—to give the United States its first team medal in men’s gymnastics in 16 years. On Monday, he spent the evening shouting at his teammates, cupping his mouth with his hands to make sure his support was heard. But on Saturday night, Nedoroscik sat alone at the end of the competition area. His head down, staring at the floor, he didn’t even look to the side as the first four gymnasts performed, let alone glance at the scoreboard.
In a script flip of the team final, Nedoroscik went right in, fifth out of eight gymnasts, jumping 15,300 meters, placing third. Instead of waiting to compete, he had to wait to make sure he got on the podium. When South Korea’s Hur Woong fell off the apparatus, securing the bronze, Nedoroscik threw his hands in the air, much to the delight of the crowd.
“It’s definitely not the best scenario to be in, when there are still a few gymnasts left and you’re in third place,” Nedoroscik said. “It’s a little bit nerve-racking, but I felt confident that maybe my score was good enough to hold on.”
It’s that trust that may not have been appreciated in this whole nerd-to-champion race. Nedoroscik didn’t end up on the Olympic podium by accident. He’s a 2021 world champion and a two-time NCAA champion. He was intentionally placed on the U.S. roster to ensure a better team score. The men’s gymnasts purposefully opted to forgo the more subjective selection process used by the women, opting instead to crunch the numbers and see what yielded the best score. In either scenario, adding Nedoroscik made sense.
But let’s be serious. No one cares about any of that. The joy of the Olympics comes as much from the unexpected as from the impressive. Simone Biles, who won her seventh gold medal just minutes before Nedoroscik, is unavoidable. Nedoroscik is an everyman, recognizable by his ordinariness beyond his extraordinary pommel horse. He’s not someone you’d stop to stare at if he walked down the street; he doesn’t shout that he’s an Olympic athlete.
And when he became, of all people, an Olympic hero, he walked straight into the vortex of American fame, an underdog turned champion who won one for the U.S. of A. Nedoroscik exploded as only one can in today’s social media world. He’s now a face who’s launched a thousand memes, many of which Nedoroscik himself has seen. An eyewear company, eyebobs, cleverly launched a marketing campaign around his glasses, renaming — or reframing — one of its designs “the Stephen.” At 11:16 a.m. ET, the time Nedoroscik was scheduled to compete, people could try to claim a free pair. The New York Post’s Page Six and US Weekly ran a blurb about his girlfriend.
Nedorosock is both delightfully amused by it — “Really? That was her? I didn’t know,” Nedoroscik said of the Insta-fame of Tess McCracken, his girlfriend. “Go Tess,” — and delightfully amused. Asked who the most famous person to reach out to him on social media was, Nedoroscik said, “The guy who wrote ‘Fault in Our Stars’ tweeted about me. That was insane.” That would be John Green, author of the melodrama about two terminally ill teenagers.
But he also knew that, despite what people said about him after the team final, he didn’t have just one job; he had two. He also wanted a medal in the event final, and the competition, he knew, would be fierce. Rhys McClenaghan, who would win gold for Ireland, is a two-time world champion; Max Whitlock, of Great Britain, has won the last two Olympic medals on the pommel horse, and the difference between first and sixth in qualifying was just .200.
So after a few days of enjoying his 15 minutes of fame, Nedoroscik purposely turned off his notifications. He wanted to quiet the noise. Nedoroscik has an electrical engineering degree from Penn State, and his coach, Randy Jespon, told The Athletics that he is extremely analytical. He likes routine, so he went down in an Olympic village without his teammates, who had already finished the competition. He fiddled with his Rubik’s Cube, trying to reach his goal of under 10 seconds. He listened to music. He ate his apples and his muffin.
Nedoroscik tinkered with changing his routine, perhaps adding difficulty in response to the talented field. He tried a few alternatives but didn’t like how they felt, and as he said after the team final, his routine is “all by feel.”
So he did what felt right.
There’s no doubt that Nedoroscik would have loved a gold medal; the U.S. hasn’t won one in an individual event since 1984. But when the moderator at the post-race press conference introduced McClenaghan and explained that it was Ireland’s first Olympic medal in gymnastics, the Nedoroscik stalwart raised his eyebrows. “Dude, that’s soooo cool,” he said, reaching over to shake the Irishman’s hand.
The two exchange challenges, each with a reference to Los Angeles. Later, Nedoroscik confirmed his future plans without hesitation. “I will definitely do it again in 2028,” he said. But that is for another time.
Nedoroscik immediately looked forward to reconnecting with his family, turning his notifications back on, and resting his tired body. After all, even superheroes need a break.
Required reading
(Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
