How Stephen Nedoroscik sealed Olympic bronze for US with pommel horse

PARIS — Hours before the men’s gymnastics team final at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Stephen Nedoroscik solved a Rubik’s Cube in 9.32 seconds. It’s a hobby of his. And that time, for context, is quite impressive. ‘Good omen,’ he wrote on Instagram.

It was indeed.

In arguably the most pressure-packed situation that one could imagine in men’s gymnastics − the last routine of the last rotation of the Olympic final − Nedoroscik delivered in a big way Monday night, putting together a smooth, confident showing on pommel horse that wrapped up the bronze medal for the U.S. men’s gymnastics team.

It was his only event of the night, on the apparatus he’s practiced exclusively since the waning days of high school. And when it was over, his teammates hoisted him into the air, and he raised his hands above his head.

‘It was just the greatest moment of my life, I think,’ Nedoroscik said.

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It’s difficult to describe, in non-gymnastics terms, the sort of proverbial pressure cooker that Nedoroscik stepped into Monday night. It’d be like an NFL kicker sitting on the bench for the entirety of the Super Bowl, then coming out in overtime and draining a 49-yard field goal to win the game.

Yet even that analogy might not work. It’s not just that the 25-year-old’s only event in the team final was dead last, but also that pommel horse is notoriously known as the trickiest event in the sport. And that Team USA had not won a team medal in men’s gymnastics at the Olympics since Nedoroscik was 9 years old.

So, pressure? Oh yeah, he admitted, he felt some pressure.

‘(But) I thought about it before, about how I get to be the last person that goes in the Olympics,’ Nedoroscik said. ‘I put that in my head as a positive. Like, I can be the exclamation point.’

It was, in many ways, a validating moment for Nedoroscik, a Massachusetts kid who made a big decision all the way back at the tail end of high school. He knew, even eight years ago, that he probably did not have the talent to make it as an all-around gymnast at the collegiate level, let alone at the Olympic level. But in pommel horse, he realized, he might have a chance. He might be able to make it.

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So Nedoroscik went all-in on one thing. He won two NCAA titles at Penn State, then four national championships and even a 2021 world title − all on pommel horse.

‘Somebody like Stephen is a real anomaly,’ his college coach, Randy Jepson, said in an interview earlier this summer. ‘You don’t get a lot of those guys that stand up and stick out where they’re the best in the world (in a single event).’

But amid his successes, a narrative also started to form in some corners of the gymnastics world − that Nedoroscik could not hit a routine under pressure. He fell at the 2021 Olympic trials, which prompted the U.S. to instead bring Alec Yoder to Tokyo. And he missed again in the final at the 2022 world championships, where the Americans finished fifth. What was the point of bringing a specialist, the naysayers started to ask, if he couldn’t do his singular job?

The questions continued even through the leadup to these Games, when Nedoroscik locked in his spot on Team USA based on math rather than a selection committee’s preference. USA Gymnastics used scores from the national championships and Olympic trials to calculate the best possible teams for Paris − and, in part because other U.S. gymnasts struggled on pommel horse, Nedoroscik was on all of them. They needed his best, even if it meant risking a fall.

‘I think there were a lot of people critical of Stephen being on the team to begin with − some of his history of not hitting the routine during a team event,’ said Syque Caesar, one of his coaches. ‘You only need to hit when you need to hit. And yes, he missed at some other competitions, but nothing comes to the Olympics.’

After years of hyping himself up before competition, Nedoroscik said he later came to learn that it was better to calm himself down. He said his goal isn’t to win anything, or make finals, or earn a certain score. These days, he focuses only on doing ‘a good Russian flop’ − the second skill in his routine.

On Monday, Caesar said, Nedoroscik didn’t warm up with the rest of the team. Instead, when they passed the halfway point of the competition, he went to practice in a back gym with three-time Olympian Sam Mikulak, another one of his coaches. ‘It’s just one Russian flop,’ Nedoroscik told him.

He then proceeded to step out onto the podium and record a score of 14.866 that, while three-tenths below his score in qualifying, was plenty good enough to put the U.S. on the podium.

‘It’s like a Cinderella story, fairy tale ending,’ Mikulak said. ‘I just hope everyone starts believing and gives him the credit that’s due – especially Team USA, for creating the procedures that got him on the team.’

Mikulak smiled when told by reporters that Nedoroscik had already been picking up fans on social media for his ‘nerdy’ appearance — he wears glasses and used to compete in goggles.

‘He’s this awesome personality. He’s a great kid,’ Mikulak said. ‘And he deserves to be recognized for his individuality and his character.’

Nedoroscik, for his part, said he’s mostly been trying to stay away from the internet in the weeks leading up to Paris − though he was well aware of the people who didn’t think he deserved a spot on the Olympic team.

‘I knew that there was going to backlash to it,’ Nedoroscik said. ‘I do one event compared to these guys that are all-arounders − phenomenal all-arounders. And I am a phenomenal horse guy, but it’s hard to fit on a five-guy team.

‘I think I kind of used that as motivation a little bit. In the gym, I was thinking, ‘Let’s prove these people wrong. Let’s show them I am consistent. Let’s show them I can do it for Team USA.’ I think I did that tonight.”

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad.