Team USA gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik arrived at 2024 Paris Olympics with one job to do, deliver on the pommel horse. The specialist instantly became a fan favorite in Paris following his brilliant performance during the Team Finals, sealing the men's national team's bronze medal, their first podium finish since 2008.
The Penn State alum only competes on the pommel horse. The 25-year-old, who won gold on the apparatus at the 2021 World Championships, was the only U.S. male gymnast to qualify for an individual final in Paris.
Nedoroscik earned a 15.300 on the pommel horse during the event final, which earned the Olympics darling a second bronze medal. Ireland's Rhys McClenaghan won the gold medal, while Kazakhstan's Nariman Kurbanov earned silver.
While Nedoroscik has been called "The Pommel Horse Guy" throughout his Olympic journey, NBC's gymnastics commentator Laurie Hernandez, who won a gold medal with the women's national team at the 2016 Rio Olympics, gave him a new nickname that quickly went viral.
Hernandez called Nedoroscik "Horse Boy" while celebrating his achievement on social media, which quickly racked up over 17,000 likes.
Because Nedoroscik wears glasses, and takes them off to compete, he's drawn comparisons to Clark Kent. Nedoroscik suffers from strabismus, a condition in which both eyes do not look at the same place at the same time, per the American Optometric Association .
“It’s not necessarily clear, but the thing about pommel horse is if I keep them on, they’re gonna fly somewhere,” Nedoroscik told TODAY .
“When I go up on the pommel horse, it’s all about feeling the equipment. I don’t even really see when I’m doing my gymnastics. It’s all in the hands — I can feel everything.”
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