Internet ‘obsessed’ with new Olympic ‘icon’ dubbed ‘pommel horse guy’
He’s the bespectacled, self-confessed “nerd” - who is also incredibly jacked and dominating at the Paris Olympics. And viewers can’t get enough.
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Stephen Nedoroscik might be a one-trick pony — but a nearly perfect one at that.
The American gymnast executed a seamless routine on the pommel horse for a score of 14.866 to seal Team USA’s bronze medal in the all-around team competition in Paris, earning him the “Pommel Horse Guy” moniker on social media.
The Athletic senior writer Nicole Auerbach dubbed him an “American icon”.
“Obsessed with this guy on the US men’s gymnastics team who’s only job is pommel horse, so he just sits there until he’s activated like a sleeper agent, whips off his glasses like Clark Kent and does a pommel horse routine that helps deliver the team its first medal in 16 years,” another viral tweet read.
Another wrote: “As a glasses wearer its so deeply chaotic to me to see him take his glasses off to compete and then immediately put them back on. Can he... see without them? Is he just raw dogging the olympic pommel horse without being able to see?!?”
As he finished, the 25-year-old, a self-professed “nerd” who wears thick black-framed non-prescription glasses when he’s not competing, clapped his hands in jubilation and then joined teammates Asher Hong, Paul Juda, Brody Malone and Fred Richard, who hoisted him in the air as he raised his arms to celebrate.
“It went really well today, I handled the nerves very well,” Nedoroscik told reporters in Paris. “I worked my whole life up to those 45 seconds.”
The medal, albeit in third place, was the American team’s first since 2008 in Beijing.
“As soon as Steve hit pommel, I knew it,” said US high performance director Brett McClure.
Team USA slipped by Great Britain by just more than two points — a feat made more impressive by the fact the Americans were in seventh place before Nedoroscik’s routine, but the Massachusetts native quickly flipped the standings.
“We were probably going to medal if I nailed my set, and they were jumping up and down and I was like, ‘I think we did it!’,” Nedoroscik said. “And they picked me up and, man, that’s a memory that’s going to live in my head forever.”
As it turns out, Nedoroscik might have had one job in Paris, but he’s one of the most accomplished in the world at it.
Who is the ‘pommel horse guy’?
Nedoroscik won the 2024 US pommel horse championship. Before that, the Sarasota, Florida resident attended Penn State, where he won two national titles in pommel horse competition and was a four-time All-American.
The self-proclaimed nerd also studied electrical engineering.
He’s earned a legion of fans due to his specs — “They’re more for show than anything,” he said. “They don’t have prescription in them. We’ll see if they make an appearance in one of the next couple of competitions I have” — and his quirks, like his personal record for solving a Rubik’s cube in a stunning 8.664 seconds, according to his TikTok bio.
“Stephen was in the hardest seat of the entire competition,” McClure said. “Last up on the last event, knowing that if you hit a routine, you’re probably going to medal — and he did it.”
There’s potentially more coming, too.
Nedoroscik will vie for gold Saturday in the event final, having to go up against Great Britain’s Max Whitlock, who has won two straight gold medals in the event.
Does ‘pommel horse guy’ have a girlfriend?
Perhaps Nedoroscik’s biggest fan is his girlfriend of eight years Tess McCracken.
She was at a loss for words following his triumph, posting a heartfelt message on Instagram.
“History = Made,” McCracken began. “The most insane, magical day watching you close it out to bring home the first team medal for USA in sixteen years. Words can’t capture how proud I am of you.”
A first-time Olympian, Nedoroscik expressed gratitude to McCracken earlier this month upon learning he’d be packing his bags for Paris.
“To my beautiful cheerleader @tess.mccracken I couldn’t have done it without you. ️I love you,” he gushed on Instagram.
Nedoroscik and McCracken marked eight years of dating on July 4.
“What a lucky man I am to have you by my side throughout this journey,” he posted on social media. I cant imagine where I’d be without you supporting me everyday. Happy 8 years Tess, I love you.”
This article was originally published by the New York Post and reproduced with permission
Originally published as Internet ‘obsessed’ with new Olympic ‘icon’ dubbed ‘pommel horse guy’
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