Stephen Nedoroscik of Team USA competes during the Artistic Gymnastics Men’s Pommel Horse Final on day eight of the Paris Summer Olympics at Bercy Arena. Credit – Naomi Baker—Getty Images
It was hard to tell who was the bigger draw in the Bercy Arena on Aug. 3—Simone Biles or Stephen Nedoroscik. Biles competed in vault with teammate Jade Carey, and Nedoroscik competed in pommel horse, the only member of the men’s gymnastics team to qualify for an event final.
The roar of the crowd was equally deafening for both—an ode to the incredible gymnastics each has performed under pressure in Paris—Biles in winning the team event and all-around, and Nedorscik in pulling a clutch routine to help the Team USA men’s team win its first medal in 16 years.
At some point before competing, when the cameras are focused on him, Nedoroscik has a ritual—tugging on his ear; it’s one he performs before every competition to acknowledge his family and loved ones. It started as a secret greeting to his paternal grandfather, who passed away last year, but he continues as a way to say “hey” to his relatives.
He sent the signal again as he walked out to receive the bronze medal, behind Ireland’s Rhys McClenaghan who earned the country’s first Olympic gold medal in gymnastics and Nariman Kurbanov of Kazakstan, who won the silver medal in his first appearance at the Games.
Nedoroscik’s bronze is the second medal for the U.S. men’s team, who earned bronze in the team event, and will be the last at the Paris Games, since Nedoroscik was the only member to qualify for an event final.
A fan of solving Rubik’s Cubes as a way to relax, Nedoroscik sensed the day was going his way when he solved the cube in under 10 seconds, but then worried that might be the best thing that happened to him today. It wasn’t.
For all the frenzy on the internet about Nedoroscik’s look, in which his black rimmed glasses play a big part, the 25-year-old Massachusetts native actually competes sans eyewear on the pommel horse, the event he made famous during qualification when he waited 2.5 hours just to compete in the one event.
Nedoroscik says he doesn’t actually need to see in order to swing his legs around the apparatus and move his body across it. He likes to visualize his routines, which is what triggered the slew of memes when he was captured with his head back and eyes closed waiting to compete during the team final on July 29. “I’m walking through the motions, flexing my muscles so I have good muscle memory,” he said of the practice after the U.S. Olympic trials at the end of June.
He put himself back in that zone on the pommel horse for the event final—earning an 8.9 out of 10.0 points for execution, which is what edged him above the Tokyo champion, Britain’s Max Whitlock.
His family and girlfriend, Tess McCracken, a retired collegiate gymnast whom he met on their first day at Pennsylvania State University during gymnastics team orientation, were in Paris to witness Nedoroscik’s viral performance in the team event and his second medal in the pommel horse final. The bespectacled graduate in electrical engineering now lives in Florida with McCracken and a cat named Kyushu for the city where Nedoroscik won his world championship title in pommel horse in 2021. McCracken works for a contract research organization in the biopharmaceutical industry and says Nedoroscik has been tightly focused on making the Olympic team and performing well in Paris, and for months has been cutting out distractions in order to train and be mentally prepared for the 45-second spurts that he’s done on the horse.
Nedoroscik picked up the pommel horse when a coach spotted his skills and suggested that he could be a national champion on that apparatus. He’s done that one better and is now an Olympic medalist.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s McClenaghan delivered a stunning routine, which wasn’t the most difficult of the competition but earned an 8.933 in execution, and continued his dominance in the event—he was world champion in 2022 and 2023, following Nedoroscik, who won the title in 2021. “What an amazing final to be part of,” McClenaghan said. “I was saying to Stephen that this was the best pommel horse final that ever happened, ever in the history of men’s gymnastics. To be a part of that is absolutely incredible. Any one of those eight finalists [competing] could have taken gold today.” He admitted he was nervous watching Nedoroscik, who competed after him, because he knew the American “has huge difficulty and can pull it off when it matters.”
Good friends who have a strong respect for each other, McClenaghan and Nedoroscik said they talked about what comes next—“LA baby, let’s go”—McClenaghan said he told Nedoroscik, referring to the next summer Olympics in Los Angeles. “I love the kudos he’s getting for the team final result—I love watching everyone finding out about Stephen Nedoroscik,” McClenaghan said of his competitor’s sudden internet fame.
On women’s vault, each gymnast performed two vaults and their scores were averaged. Team USA’s Biles faced off again against Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, after saying that “I don’t want to compete against Rebeca no more…She’s way too close. I was uncomfortable guys; I was stressing,” she said following the team event in Paris.
The event finals are usually when gymnasts decide to bring out riskier or more difficult skills they have trained—the ones that could cost them valuable points in the qualification, team and all-around events if they make mistakes. Biles, however, decided to perform her Biles II, the Yurchenko double pike vault, during the all-around event because, she said, she felt Andrade might surpass her without it. “She’s way too close [in her scores]” Biles said after winning the all-around over Andrade. “On each event we’re very similar in scores so I was like, ‘OK, I think I have to bring out the big guns this time.’”
Biles stuck to that strategy in the vault final, opting to fly through the air with the Biles II for her opening vault. She built up so much momentum in the two flips she did in the air above the vault that she hopped back on the landing and stepped slightly out of bounds, earning a 0.1 deduction. She also generated enough power in her second vault, the Cheng, to hop backward on her landing. But her average score of 15.3 was enough for gold, 0.334 points ahead of Andrade who earned silver. It’s Biles’ 10th Olympic medal, and seventh gold. In Paris, Biles has earned gold in every event in which she competed.
Biles’ teammate Jade Carey, who was also part of the Tokyo team, landed two strong vaults and won bronze. Carey was also expected to compete in the floor event final in which she won gold in Tokyo. However, during the qualification in Paris, Carey stepped out of bounds and had an uncharacteristic fall and revealed she was feeling unwell that day, and that there was “actually something wrong,” without revealing the cause. Only two athletes from each country are eligible to compete in an event final, and Carey scored below Biles and Jordan Chiles, who qualified for the U.S.
All of the women who competed in the qualification round at the start of the Olympics in Paris—Biles, Carey, Chiles, and Lee—qualified for at least one event final. Lee competes on Aug. 4 on uneven bars, and on the following day, Biles and Lee will compete on balance beam and Biles and Chiles on floor exercise.
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