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Stephen Nedoroscik, Team USA's 'Pommel Horse Guy,' Isn't Done Yet at the Olympics

The Penn State graduate and newly minted Olympics star goes for individual gold Saturday on the pommel horse.

Mark Wogenrich

Stephen Nedoroscik reacts after he performs on the pommel horse during the men’s team final of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Stephen Nedoroscik reacts after he performs on the pommel horse during the men’s team final of the 2024 Paris Olympics. / James Lang-USA TODAY Sports
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After falling in love with Team USA gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik, America's fans of "Pommel Horse Guy" get one more chance to watch their unique new hero. Nedoroscik will compete in Saturday's men's pommel horse final at the Paris Olympics seeking an extremely rare gold medal for U.S. gymnastics.

Nedoroscik, the 2021 pommel horse world champion, can become the first U.S. gymnast to win Olympic pommel horse gold since Peter Vidmar in 1984. Prior to Vidmar, the last U.S. winner was Anton Heida at the 1904 Games in Philadelphia. Thus, Nedoroscik can become just the third American to win the pommel horse at the Olympics. The event is scheduled to begin at 11:15 a.m. ET on Saturday.

How did Nedoroscik get here? Why does he focus solely on pommel horse? And what's the story behind his glasses? Nedoroscik brought a fascinating back story to Paris, for which America has fallen.

Nedoroscik, a 2020 Penn State graduate and two-time NCAA pommel horse champion, helped the U.S. clinch bronze in the men's gymnastics team competition earlier this week. Nedoroscik performed the last discipline in the American circuit, scoring a 14.866 to secure Team USA's first team medal in men's team gymnastics since 2008. With that performance, Nedoroscik became "Pommel Horse Guy," a nickname that carried him to social media stardom.

Nedoroscik, 25, grew up in Worcester, Mass., and now lives and trains in Sarasota, Florida. According to his Olympics biography, Nedoroscik began climbing things around the house when he was 1 year old, and his parents enrolled him in gymnastics at age 4. " The first day I was there I climbed a 15-foot rope, and within the next few days I was invited to join the team," Nedoroscik said in 2023.

Nedoroscik enrolled at Penn State in 2017, when he won the first of two NCAA pommel horse titles. He was pursuing a third in 2020 when the NCAA gymnastics championships were canceled. That year Nedoroscik became the first specialist to win the Nissen-Emery Award as the nation’s top senior gymnast.

After graduating from Penn State with a degree in engineering, Nedoroscik won four pommel horse titles at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships from 2021-24. In 2021, he became the first U.S. gymnast to win a pommel horse gold medal at the world championships.

This week, Nedoroscik delivered what he called "the greatest moment of my life" with his medal-clinching performance in the men's team event at the Olympics. Before and after, Nedoroscik charmed viewers with his preparation and reaction.

Nedoroscik wears glasses, as The Athletic's Dana O'Neil reported, because of condition that permanently dilates his eyes. Removing the glasses before competing immediately turned Nedoroscik into a viral Clark Kent.

Nedoroscik became a pommel horse specialist early in his club career, taking that gift to Penn State, where coach Randy Jepson nurtured it. While watching the U.S. men's team Monday, Jepson felt confident that Nedoroscik would come through.

“I knew he had it as soon as I saw him take the podium and do his arm swings and take his warmup,” Jepson said in a statement. "It’s just all about the first circle he does and as soon as he got that I knew his tempo was right and he was off to the races. I couldn’t be happier for Penn State’s second bronze medalist at the Olympics.”

Does Nedoroscik have one more round of magic ready for the individual pommel horse competition? During the team qualifying round, Nedoroscik and Ireland's Rhys McClenaghan achieved the best overall scores (15.200), but Nedoroscik ranked second with a lower execution score. Both finished qualifying ahead of Great Britain's Max Whitlock, the event's two-time defending champ. The competition starts over Saturday.

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Penn State on SI is the place for Penn State news, opinion and perspective on the SI.com network. Publisher Mark Wogenrich has covered Penn State for more than 20 years, tracking three coaching staffs, three Big Ten titles and a catalog of great stories. Follow him on X (or Twitter) @MarkWogenrich.

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Mark Wogenrich
MARK WOGENRICH

Mark Wogenrich is Editor and Publisher of AllPennState, the site for Penn State news on SI's FanNation Network. He has covered Penn State sports for more than two decades across three coaching staffs and three Rose Bowls.

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