2024 Olympics: Meet Stephen Nedoroscik, the ‘Pommel Horse Guy’

Find out more about the 'Pommel Horse Guy,' the USA's favorite Olympian right now.

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July 30, 2024 9:45AM EDT
PARIS, FRANCE - JULY 29: Stephen Nedoroscik of United States on Pommel Horse during the Men's Artistic Gymnastics Team Final on day three of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on July 29, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Daniela Porcelli/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)
Image Credit: Getty Images

Stephen Nedoroscik has now been described as a sleeper agent, akin to Clark Kent with the way he takes off his glasses before swinging into action, but most may refer to him as the ‘Pommel Horse Guy’.

While most male gymnasts train for multiple routines, Nedoroscik specializes in just one: the pommel horse. Due to his specialty, the U.S. men’s gymnastics team walked away from the Olympics with a bronze medal—the team’s first in men’s gymnastics since 2008.

Mikulak, a three-time Olympian turned coach, told the athlete that he didn’t need to go all out. That 80% would be good enough, even though Mikulak knew full well that Nedoroscik never does anything—whether in his sport or solving a Rubik’s Cube—at 80%.

The announcers struggled to put into words the pressure Nedoroscik was under as Team USA closed in on its first team medal since 2008. “You have to trick yourself,” said Mikulak. “You’ve got to make sure you don’t let all the noise get into your head.”

The pommel horse was the final event for Team USA’s rotation, and the Penn State grad was the last member of Team USA to attempt his only routine. The NBC broadcast even included a timer for the lead-up to Nedoroscik’s event.

After a long wait, the Olympian performed his moves on the pommel horse in just 40 seconds. His score put Team USA ahead of Team Great Britain, which came in fourth place, by two points.

Because the pommel horse has long been a weakness for the U.S. men’s national team program, Nedoroscik essentially decided to dedicate himself to a single pursuit. His attitude of “there’s still something to improve” paid off for Team USA.

“Going up to pommel horse, the last guy up in the whole competition, I had a good feeling that our team was in a great spot. I just knew I had to go up there and do my job,” he told NBC in an interview after the event.

And landing the dismount, he said, was the “best moment of my life.”

Here’s everything you need to know about Team USA’s closer …

Who is Stephen Nedoroscik?

Nedoroscik is from Worcester, Massachusetts, and majored in electrical engineering at Penn State.

The 25-year-old competed in college from 2017 to 2019, winning two NCAA titles on the pommel horse in 2017 and 2018 and finishing as the runner-up in 2019.

In 2014, a coach who had trained the national pommel-horse champion the previous year approached Nedoroscik and told him he could be the national champion one day, Time magazine reported.

He went on to become the first American to win a gold medal on the pommel horse at the 2021 World Championships.

The 2024 Olympics marked his first time making Team USA at the Olympic Games.

What About the Rest of Team USA?

Nedoroscik was just one competitor on one event in the team final for Team USA. To get him in position to perform that routine for the bronze medal were Paul Juda, Fred Richard, Asher Hong, and Brody Malone. Richard and Juda both compete for Michigan, while Hong and Malone competed for Stanford.

Teammates Richard, Malone, Juda, and Hong had completed 17 straight routines without a miss, putting the Americans in position to reach the medal stand for the first time since 2008 in Beijing.

Thus, after the Pommel Horse Guy did his thing, Team USA became the only team in the event final not to fall on any of their routines, hitting all 18 to win the bronze medal.

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