Mr. Pommel Horse has had quite the week.
Stephen Nedoroscik, dubbed "Pommel Horse Guy" by the internet, became an Olympic bronze medalist Monday, then a meme. Now, he has an individual Olympic medal.
He won bronze on the pommel horse, performing a more difficult routine than in the team final and scoring a 15.300. Rhys McClenaghan won Ireland’s first gold in gymnastics with a 15.533 in the final. Nariman Kurbanov of Kazakhstan took silver.
Nedoroscik found out he was an online sensation from his girlfriend after clinching a historic podium finish for the U.S. men's team Monday.
"Have you looked at your phone yet?" she asked him. He hadn't.
The delightful memes kept rolling in, but Nedoroscik still had a job to do.
"Unfortunately, yesterday, I had to turn it all off because I really needed to focus for this meet," Nedoroscik said. "So looking forward to turning it all back on and seeing the positivity that America’s sending my way."
The word Nedoroscik used to described his Olympic experience was "unforgettable."
"It has just been an amazing experience," he said. "I came with a great group of guys, and every second of it I’m going to cherish forever."
Nedoroscik will be the only individual medalist of the Games for the U.S. men, since no other gymnasts qualified for apparatus finals.
At 25, he became a breakout star of the Paris Games after anchoring the U.S. men's gymnastics team to their first team Olympic medal since 2008.
He made the Olympic team based solely on the strength of his routine on the event. He's so good on the horse, he doesn't even have to bother with the other five apparatuses and has not trained on them in many years.
Nedoroscik may not have the obvious muscle of some of the other male gymnasts, who perform triple backflips and static holds on the still rings, but Nedoroscik is a wizard on the pommel horse and won the apparatus title at the 2021 world championships.
Much like the balance beam on the women's side, it's an event that tends to plague even the fiercest of competitors and is therefore highly valuable.
In the team final, Nedoroscik faced a grueling 2½-hour wait on the sidelines before he could perform his one routine, but the circumstances could not have been more cinematic. To withstand the mounting pressure as his time approached, Nedoroscik could be seen meditating on the sidelines and finally removing his trademark glasses as he locked in.
“I don’t even really see when I’m doing my gymnastics,” he said. “It’s all in the hands. I can feel everything.”
When the moment finally came, he delivered under pressure and was promptly hoisted into the air by his teammates, a Team USA hero and a prime-time star for those watching at home.
The internet was quick to dub him “the pommel horse guy," and likened him to Superman's alter ego, Clark Kent.
Nedoroscik doesn't mind. He told NBC’s “TODAY” show that it’s “an awesome comparison.”
