On Monday night, Team USA's men's gymnastics team earned their first medal — a third-place bronze — for the first time since George Bush was in the Oval Office. While the long-awaited medal moment spoke to the combined talents of the five-person team, it was Pommel Horse Guy's efforts that propelled them to the podium.
Unlike his teammates, Stephen Nedoroscik was the only member of the group to qualify for a single event at the Olympics, the pommel horse, a notoriously difficult event that requires athletes to continuously balance and swing their bodies atop an apparatus with two handles using only their hands (and impressive core strength) to support themselves.
The pommel horse wasn't the only place Nedoroscik gained momentum, however. The 25-year-old quickly found major internet appeal where social media users and Olympic fans homed in on his pre- and post-competition antics, which largely included dozing off on the sidelines until his event turn. "OUR ROMAN EMPIRE," wrote NBC Olympics' official Instagram account, alongside an image of a seemingly snoozing (or is it meditating?) Nedoroscik, a reference to the internet trend that went viral in 2023.
Here are a few things you should know about the internet's latest Olympic obsession.
Originally from Worcester, Massachusetts, Nedoroscik studied electrical engineering at Penn State University, where he also competed in gymnastics. His profession — and bespectacled appearance — earned him the title of "nerdy" from fans across social media.
After being named to the Olympic team in June, Nederoscik told press that it had long been on his radar to qualify for the Games. “When I was very, very young people would tell me, ‘One day you’re going to be an Olympian!’ ” he said, according to NPR. “Back then I was just a dorky little kid. And now look at me — I’m a dorky adult, going to the Olympics.”
Author John Green chimed in on X/Twitter, happy to report that "Stephen Nedoroscik just struck a blow for nerds everywhere. Beautiful."
"People who aren't nerds don't understand how long we've been waiting for an electrical engineer from Pennsylvania to [sic] POMMEL THE HELL OUT OF A HORSE," Green added in a separate tweet.
To hear it in Green's own words, "To truly understand Stephen Nedoroscik's nerd credentials, you need to know that he is in Paris for the Olympics and posting to his insta story about solving a Rubik's cube in under 10 seconds."
Nedoroscik, a seeming Rubik's cube aficionado, took to his Instagram account ahead of his team competition to get some cubing time in. “It’s stress relief,” he said told TODAY on Tuesday. “Sometimes I make the excuse that it’s good for wrist rehab, too.”
CNN reported that Nedoroscik's personal record for solving a Rubik's cube is 8.6 seconds. The outlet also noted that he dabbles in other forms of puzzling, as well. After a gymnast friend put him on to "killer sudoku," Nedoroscik became the 43rd person in the world to solve a sudoku puzzle that claimed to be the "world's hardest."
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Pommel Horse Guy!
Nedoroscik was quickly dubbed the "Clark Kent" of the Games, a reference to Superman's alter ego with a lackluster bespectacled disguise. Clips of the athlete ostensibly napping during other apparatus events took place went viral. Once it was his turn, he whipped off his glasses to demonstrate his mastery of the skill, secured the medal and returned to the sidelines.
"I'm a goofy guy with glasses on, but as soon as I take them off I'm locked in," Nedoroscik told TODAY.
Separate from super-hero coded references, the internet also found a way to liken Nedoroscik to Ken, whose job in the "Barbie" movie was infamously just "beach." Given that the Olympian quite literally had one job to perform, it's an apt comparison.
While speaking on the TODAY broadcast, Nedoroscik tugged on his ear, a special movement he shared was a signal between him and his grandfather, who passed away last year. His “dziadziu," (which means "grandfather" in Polish) served in World War II and was Nedoroscik's "idol."
“I’ve kept the tradition up, and now it always means, ‘Hey,’ to everyone that I love,” the gymnast said. “When I was at Penn State, that was the thing that I did whenever I was on TV to say, ‘Hey, Dziadziu.’”
https://www.instagram.com/p/C-C98P7xosx/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_video_watch_again
Tess McCracken, Nedoroscik's long-term girlfriend of eight years, was present to watch the moment her boyfriend became a viral sensation and Olympic medalist all in one. “I was so lightheaded from screaming that I almost fainted,” the 26-year-old told NBC in a phone interview.
McCracken, who met Nedoroscik at Penn State, described him as “goofy guy” who is “really lighthearted” and “always sees the bright side of things.”
“Blowing up on the internet has been such an unexpected side effect of this whole adventure,” she added. “I have people like tagging me, calling me ‘Lois Lane.’ I’m like, ‘OK, I’m not going to be mad about it.’”
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