PARIS — When he returned the most famous glasses in sports to the bridge of his nose earlier this week, Stephen Nedoroscik could not believe what he saw: himself, everywhere. His pommel horse routine to seal the men’s Olympic gymnastics team final on Monday and earn the U.S. its first medal in that event since 2008 had captivated the nation—as had … well, everything about him.
As a pommel horse specialist who does no other apparatus, he had spent the entire final waiting around, and cameras caught him visualizing in a way that strongly suggested he had fallen asleep. NBC added a timer to indicate when it would be his turn to close out the meet. Then he ripped off his glasses and ripped through his 40-second routine. (“It’s all feeling,” he explained afterward. “I see with my hands.”) His teammates flung him in the air. He revealed that he likes to solve Rubik’s cubes for fun. (Before a competition, if he solves it in under 10 seconds, it’s a good omen for his gymnastics.) He quickly became America’s favorite nerd.
Incredibly, Nedoroscik, 25, made Saturday’s men’s pommel horse final—a niche competition, if we are being generous—must-see TV, and he delivered with a bronze medal that might have been even harder to win than the team bronze, given what the previous 96 hours had looked like.
“It definitely was getting to me,” he acknowledged afterward. “I was getting really indulgent and trying to make sure that I was capitalizing on the people that are reaching out to me and making sure to stay in contact with people I think are important, but yesterday I had to just put my foot down and say, ‘I cannot do any more interviews until Sunday. I need to focus on my individual competition.’”
His coaches advised him to try monotony. Most of his teammates had finished competing and had left the Olympic Village and moved into hotels with their families, so he spent a lot of time alone. He turned off notifications on his phone. He ate the same six slices of green apple and the most famous pastry at the Games, the chocolate muffin, for breakfast that he has eaten since he arrived. He solved the Rubik’s cube “a couple hundred times,” he said.
“Maybe I missed opportunities because of that,” he said. “But I’m more proud of getting this bronze medal right here than any of those opportunities.”
He won it by maintaining that same tunnel vision: Competing fifth of eight, he did not look at his opponents’ scores. He did not want to adjust his routine based on what they had done.
“I played around with upgrades yesterday,” he said. “And it just didn’t feel like it was going that well. I tweaked my back yesterday as well. So I was like, Let’s just go out to the pommel horse finals and have fun. Let’s just do the routine I did so many times and enjoy the moment.”
Afterward, he embraced Ireland’s Rhys McClenaghan, who won gold, Ireland’s first men’s gymnastics medal ever. Kazakhstan’s Nariman Kurbanov took silver.
“I absolutely love that everyone’s finding out about Stephen Nedoroscik,” McClenaghan said.
Now Nedoroscik can return to those opportunities, if he can even keep track of them all. He has had some “weird” interactions that he does not think is “appropriate” to describe, he said, but mostly the fame has been delightful. He trended on Twitter. (Well, “Pommel Horse Guy” did. You try spelling Nedoroscik. Not even the moderator of his medal-winning press conference pronounced it correctly. It’s Ned-or-AW-zik.) His girlfriend, Tess McCracken, has appeared in People magazine. The author John Green tweeted about him.
“That was,” Nedoroscik gushed, “insane.”
Otherwise, he is not sure what will come next for him. First up will be some celebrations with McCracken and his family, whom he has barely seen during these Olympics. He leaves Paris on Aug. 6. Then, he will sit still for a month.
“I’ve definitely had some stress injuries throughout my wrist, my elbows, my back,” he said. “I don't know what's going on, but I’ve been in pain for a while, so it’s definitely a good idea to get checked out and take a little bit of a break and we’ll see what big opportunities I might have coming this fall.”
Perhaps an appearance on Dancing with the Stars, or hosting Saturday Night Live? Nedoroscik wouldn’t say. But he is sure where he will be four years from now.
“I will definitely be running it back to L.A.,” he said.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as ‘Pommel Horse Guy’ Stephen Nedoroscik Earns Another Medal—and Shares What’s Next.
