Social media goes wild over ‘Pommel Horse Guy’ Stephen Nedoroscik, the Clark Kent of the USA men’s Olympics gymnastics team
Stephen Nedoroscik earned a number of nicknames during his long and dizzying journey to Olympic success in Paris this summer.
The 25-year-old won his first Olympic medal in 16 years for the U.S. gymnastics team on Monday during the finals with his pommel horse.
Nedoroscik has become an internet sensation, with fans calling him an “American icon” and a “horse man,” even comparing the bespectacled gymnast to Clark Kent.
“Obsessed with this dude on the USA Men’s Gymnastics team who only rides horses so he just sits there until he’s activated like a dormant agent, pulls off his glasses like Clark Kent and does a horseback riding routine that helps the team win their first medal in 16 years,” one supporter wrote on social media.
But Nedoroscik was known as a “spider monkey” in his youth because he “climbed the walls and scared the babysitters.”
Stephen Nedoroscik – pictured with his girlfriend Tess – won bronze in gymnastics in Paris
The gymnast scored 14.866 on the pommel horse on Monday to secure the medal for his team
“On my first day (at school), I climbed all the way up a rope. Then I was invited to join the gymnastics team. We accepted and that was it,” Nedoroscik recently revealed.
Twenty years later, his lackluster performance on horse Nedoroscik helped him take bronze, along with teammates Frederick Richard, Brody Malone, Paul Juda and Asher Hong.
Nedoroscik suffers from strabismus, a condition better known as squint. can cause double vision, but the gymnast was not wearing glasses when he scored 14.866 on the horse on Monday.
Nedoroscik told the Today programme that he represents “people who can wear glasses well”, revealing that while his vision “isn’t necessarily clear… the thing about the pommel horse is that if I [my glasses] furthermore, they are going to fly somewhere.
“When I’m on the pommel horse, it’s all about feeling the equipment. I don’t even really see it when I’m doing gymnastics. It’s all in the hands – I feel everything,” he explained.
Nedoroscik has become an internet sensation, with fans comparing the gymnast to Clark Kent
The 25-year-old gymnast became the subject of countless memes on social media on Monday
He won two national championships while studying electrical engineering at Penn State, but “ruined” his qualification for the Tokyo Olympics.
He will be going for gold on the pommel horse in the individual event on Saturday. Meanwhile, Nedoroscik solved a Rubik’s Cube in 9.3 seconds before Monday’s team final – just shy of his personal best. He is also a fan of Killer Sudoku and reportedly spent nearly 50 hours solving one puzzle.
He was already the first American gymnast in history to make the Olympic team as a specialist in one event.
It was about a decade ago that the Massachusetts native decided to devote himself to pommel horse, a sport that has long been a weak spot for the U.S. men’s national team.
Nedoroscik’s girlfriend Tess McCracken posted throwback photos alongside the gymnast
Nedoroscik is attacked by his teammates after his horse exercise at the Paris Games
“I don’t know how I don’t go crazy,” Nedoroscik admitted before the Games. “But every day I go to the gym and there’s still something to do. There’s still something to improve.”
After his performance in Paris, he became a superstar and Nedoroscik’s girlfriend Tess McCracken posted photos of the gymnast after she won her bronze medal.
The couple celebrated their eight-year anniversary, with McCracken sharing photos from every year since 2016.
Fans on social media joked that she was marking her territory and letting the world know that Nedoroscik is taken.