Stephen Nedoroscik, U.S. pommel horse Olympic hero, is back at it a year later

New York Times

2 days ago

He did the talk show circuit. He presented at the Emmy Awards. He went all the way to the final on 'Dancing With the Stars.' He got a message of congratulations from Superman.
After Stephen Nedoroscik's busy nine months enjoying the spoils of his memorable Olympic moment, you could understand if the U.S. men's gymnastics star never wanted to jump up on the pommel horse again.
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But there he was, in a hoodie and his trademark glasses, ready to go for the U.S. gymnastics championships this weekend in New Orleans.
'Hey, everyone,' he said with his typical ebullient voice and wide smile at a pre-event news conference Wednesday. 'You know, I'm glad to be back here in gymnastics.'
It's been just over a year since Nedoroscik authored one of Team USA's best moments at the Paris Olympics and brought himself into the sports mainstream. With the U.S. men's gymnastics squad on the verge of a bronze medal in the team competition, Nedoroscik — a pommel-horse specialist, in Paris just for that task — had been sitting on the sidelines for 2 1/2 hours, waiting for his turn. Pommel horse was the Americans' final rotation of the night. They needed a strong routine from the Penn State product.
When his time came, Nedoroscik didn't miss. His smooth routine set off a raucous celebration before the scores even arrived, as the Americans knew they had clinched bronze for their first Olympic medal since 2008.
STEPHEN. NEDOROSCIK.
The routine that clinched @USAGym's first Olympic medal in the men's team final since 2008 🥉
📺: @NBCOlympics & @peacock#ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/NiDVBvxx12
— Team USA (@TeamUSA) July 29, 2024
The sparkling routine, the celebration and, yes, the glasses all added up to make Nedoroscik an instant hit with U.S. fans. He rode the accomplishment to several television appearances, even finishing in fourth place on 'Dancing With the Stars.' He also received a video greeting from David Corenswet, the American actor who portrayed Superman in the franchise's latest feature film.
Why Superman? Nedoroscik's routine of removing his glasses before competition — 'I don't need to see to do pommel horse,' he famously explained in Paris — drew comparisons to the Clark Kent/Superman transition.
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The post-Olympic high combined with his age — he's 26, which he said is 'kind of pushing it' for gymnastics — might have been enough for some people to move on, but Nedoroscik sees it differently.
'I've always told myself, 'I want to be done with this sport when my body's done with the sport,'' he said. 'And I'm still getting better. … I feel like I'd be doing myself almost, like, a dishonor to not see how far I could go.'
Nedoroscik is returning after nine months away, and on a truncated three-month training season — a tricky timetable that had him questioning whether he should skip these U.S. championships and take his time getting back into form. Ultimately, he decided it was worth a shot.
'Why not just go for it?' he said. 'The worst that happens is it doesn't go well, and that's something I'm OK with. But how cool would it be if I went here and did good?'
So there he was Thursday, back on the horse, competing in New Orleans alongside three other members of that medal-winning team: Frederick Richard, Brody Malone and Asher Hong. And the rust, perhaps, showed.
Nedoroscik had to improvise in the middle after not executing the planned routine, which lowered his difficulty score, but he still completed a mostly clean turn on the horse. He scored a 14.200, with an execution score of 9.1 and the difficulty score taking a hit to 5.1 from the planned 6.2.
'I didn't know what to do there,' he said of the improvisation as he walked off the mat.
Stephen Nedoroscik delivers on pommel horse in his return to the national championships. 🤩 #XfinityChamps
📺 Peacock pic.twitter.com/aubxrLXnNh
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 8, 2025
'The original routine was a little bit different than what I ended up doing,' he told NBC Sports. 'I had a mistake, but I was quick thinking, I covered it up fast, I stayed clean. So, happy to take that 9.1 E-score … I love it!'
Nedoroscik was in fifth place in the pommel horse after Thursday, making it unlikely for him to secure a spot in October's world championships in Jakarta, Indonesia, through this meet. He would need to up his difficulty score to a 6.2 on Saturday's Day 2 of competition and win the event — a tall order in a strong field, and he trails the current leader by over 1.5 points — to do so.
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'Now that I've competed again — and I didn't compete the way I wanted to — I'm like, I want that Day 2,' he told NBC Sports. 'I want to just go all out on Day 2, hit a really nice routine, and now I have faith in myself that I can do it.'
There is another path to the world championships for Nedoroscik, who also won individual bronze in the pommel horse in Paris and was the gold medalist at the 2021 worlds. But it would be via the selection committee that picks the team this fall.
Whether he makes it to Indonesia or not, the year of Stephen Nedoroscik is ending on a note just fine for him.
'I'm always chasing after those little tiny bits of gratitude I can find in gymnastics,' he said Wednesday. 'Like, tomorrow, I'll be competing (in) a routine that's probably insanely hard for me to do, considering the circumstances.'
That proved true. But as he said, why not just go for it?
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