Meet Stephen Nedoroscik, ‘The Pommel Horse Man’ – Hollywood Life

Stephen Nedoroscik has now been described as a sleeper agent, similar to Clark Kent with the way he takes off his glasses before swinging into action, but at least he can be called a ‘Pommel Horse Guy’.

While most male gymnasts train for multiple routines, Nedoroscik specializes in just one: the pommel horse. Because of their specialization, the U.S. men’s gymnastics team walked away from the Olympics with a bronze medal – the first team in men’s gymnastics since 2008.

Mikulak, who is a three-time Olympic coach, told the athlete that he didn’t need to go all out. That 80% would be good enough, even though Mikulak knows full well that Nedoroscik has never done anything in sports or solved a Rubik’s Cube—at 80%.

Broadcasters struggled to put pressure on Nedoroscik as Team USA wrapped up its first team medal since 2008. “You have to fool yourself,” Mikulak said. “You have to make sure you don’t let all the distractions go to your head.”

The pommel horse is the final event for Team USA’s rotation, and the Penn State graduate was the last member of Team USA to attempt his routine. The NBC broadcast even included a timer to lead Nedoroscik’s show.

Stephen Nedoroscik’s timer kills me pic.twitter.com/C9TsIlQJ2N

– Hannah (@babybergy37) July 29, 2024

After a long wait, the Olympian performed his move on the pommel horse in just 40 seconds. The score puts Team USA ahead of Team Great Britain, which is in fourth place, by two points.

Since the pommel horse has long been a weakness for the US men’s national team program, Nedoroscik really decided to work on one. The “there’s still room for improvement” attitude is paying off for Team USA.

“Going up to the pommel horse, the last man in the whole competition, I felt that our team was in a good place. I just knew that I had to go up and do my job,” he told NBC in an interview after the event.

And landing it, he said, was “the best moment of my life.”

Here’s everything you need to know about Team USA’s closer…

just a horse’s pommel, you know what that means… pic.twitter.com/xtWX49hNGT

– USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) July 29, 2024

Who is Stephen Nedoroscik?

Nedoroscik is from Worcester, Massachusetts, and majored in electrical engineering at Penn State.

The 25-year-old competed in college from 2017 to 2019, winning two NCAA titles in pommel horse in 2017 and 2018 and finishing as runner-up in 2019.

In 2014, a trainer who had trained a national pommel horse champion the year before approached Nedoroscik and told him he could be a national champion one day, Time magazine reported.

He became the first American to win a gold medal on pommel horse at the 2021 World Championships.

The 2024 Olympics marks the first time the US has made a Team at the Olympics.

Stephen Nedoroscik should score big on the pommel horse for Team USA in the final rotation…

And he did. 🤯

📺: NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/hkhiHpovyh

– NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 29, 2024

What About The Rest Of Team USA?

Nedoroscik was the only competitor in one event in the team finals for Team USA. To get someone in a position to do that regularly for the same bronze medal Paul Judah, Fred Richard, Asher Hongand Brody Malone. Richard and Juda both compete for Michigan, while Hong and Malone compete for Stanford.

Teammates Richard, Malone, Juda, and Hong have completed 17 straight routines without a crash, putting the Americans in position to medal for the first time since 2008 in Beijing.