How Stephen Nedoroscik Became Team USA's Pommel Horse Hero

When it comes to Stephen Nedoroscik, just let him cook.

After all, the member of the U.S. men’s Olympic gymnastics team stayed backstage for almost three hours during the medal round until he was brought out for a single event: the pommel horse.

It’s an unusual move for a gymnastics squad. While his teammates Brody Malone, Fred Richard, Asher Hong and Paul Juda competed in five of the six events—the horizontal high bar, the parallel bars, the vault, the still rings and the floor—Stephen, 25, was sequestered away before being brought out for the final event of the evening.

But however unusual, it’s a move that made sense given Stephen’s history. The Penn State alum is not only a two-time NCAA Champion, but he’s also placed first in two World Cup events and, in 2021, became the first American World Champion on the pommel horse.

And while Stephen performed in just one round of the required three pommel horse showings, it was a gamble Team USA was willing to take.

"What it comes down to is that his scores on pommel horse are so much higher than everybody else on that one event,” NBC Sports gymnastics analyst Tim Daggett, a 1984 gold medalist, explained during the broadcast, “that he adds a tremendous amount of potential score. That one routine from Nedoroscik gives Team USA basically a full point over the next guy in line for the USA.”

So when Stephen finally made his way onto the floor alongside his teammates on July 29—after an onscreen countdown clock ticked away to the big moment—it was clear he was locked in and ready to rock.

And from the moment the Worcester, Massachusetts, native stepped out in his glasses, sitting down with his eyes closed in preparation for his big moment as his teammates celebrated their scores around him, he quickly became a fan-favorite among viewers—especially when Stephen removed his glasses before his pommel horse performance.

“Obsessed with this guy on the US men’s gymnastics team whose only job is pommel horse,” wrote one user on X, alongside a picture of Stephen meditating before his event. “So he just sits there until he’s activated like a sleeper agent, whips off his glasses like Clark Kent and does a pommel horse routine that helps deliver the team its first medal in 16 years.”

Because yes, Stephen’s score of 14.866 brought the U.S. team’s standings to a whopping 257.793, earning them a bronze medal—the first the men’s gymnastics team has won since 2008.

And in looking back at the journey to bronze, Stephen credited his team’s impressive work in getting him ready for that final performance.

“There’s one thing you talk about in gymnastics and it’s positive momentum,” he told NBC Sports’ Mike Tirico following the medal ceremony. “And these guys did that to the T, especially on vault. You could get goosebumps from watching that back. And going out on pommel horse—last guy up in the whole competition—I had a good feeling that our team was in a great spot.”

“I just knew I had to go up there and do my job,” he explained. “I was like, ‘Let’s just get it done, let’s go for it. If I put this dismount up, team USA gets a medal.’ And I think you could see it, right away when I land: goosebumps, the best moment of my life.”

And keep reading to meet more of the Team USA athletes going for gold in Paris.

Noah Lyles is in the running to be declared the fastest man in the world.

The 2023 world champion in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4x100 meter relay—the rare sprint treble—has designs on sweeping all three in Paris after a surprising bronze finish in the 100 in Tokyo.

Simone Biles is the most decorated gymnast in history, full stop. But the 2016 all-around Olympic gold medalist has unfinished business to attend to in Paris after a case of the twisties prompted her to pull out of most events in Tokyo in 2021.

Representing Team USA alongside Biles are Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera.

Longtime women's national soccer team goalie Alyssa Naeher has two World Cup titles, a slew of impressive stats and a big gap in her resume she'd love to fill with Paris gold after the squad's bronze showing in Tokyo.

Sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson was supposed to make her Olympics debut in Tokyo but was sidelined after a positive marijuana test. Now the reigning world champion in the 100 meters, she's a favorite to torch the competition in Paris in her signature event.

Swimmer Katie Ledecky has 10 Olympic medals, seven of them gold, and she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in May. Competing in her fourth Games, the Stanford grad has a chance to become the first female swimmer to win gold four straight times if she dominates once again in the 800 meters. 

Olympic soccer requires the men's teams to be all 23-and-younger with three spots allowed for "overage" players—which is why veteran defender Walker Zimmerman thought his dream of playing on this stage ended when the U.S. men failed to qualify in 2016.

"Then as things materialized this year," the 31-year-old told the LA Times, "just getting the opportunity is amazing." 

"If you had asked me at the Trials in 2021 if I regretted coming out, I would have said yes," runner Nikki Hiltz told NBC Sports of coming out as trans and nonbinary not long before they failed to qualify for Tokyo. 

But Hiltz didn't give up—on their truth or their sport—winning U.S. indoor and outdoor titles in the 1500m in 2023, repeating the indoor feat in 2024 and running a field-leading 3:55.33 to take the women's 1500m at Trials on June 30.

"It's the last day of Pride Month," Hiltz told NBC Sports at the finish line, "and I wanted to run this one for my community."

Tennis champ Coco Gauff, winner of the 2023 U.S. Open, is ranked second in the world heading into Paris. The 20-year-old is making her Olympics debut after a positive COVID test dashed her plans for Tokyo.

Top-ranked in the U.S. and No. 2 in the world, B-boy Victor Montalvo is ready to turn the Olympics on its head as breaking makes its long-awaited debut at the Paris Games.

There's never only one superstar on the U.S. men's basketball team, but four-time NBA champion LeBron James is appearing in what will almost certainly be his last Olympics and he'll be one of Team USA's two designated flagbearers at the July 26 Opening Ceremony.

James told reporters he was "super-appreciative and-super humbled" by the honor.

There's nothing not badass about wheelchair rugby and Chuck Aoki has been a star of the U.S. Paralympic team since London in 2012. With a bronze and two silvers under his belt, winning gold in Paris would really complement his collection.

While Hunter Woodhall is not least known for being long-jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall's supportive other half, the University of Arkansas grad is also a sprinting machine. The two-time Paralympian—and first-ever double-amputee athlete to earn an NCAA Division I scholarship—heads to Paris having dominated in the men's T62 400m and T62 100m at Trials.

Two athletes, but a packaged set as far as beach volleyball is concerned. Louisiana State alums and best friends Taryn Kloth and Kristen Nuss hadn't even turned pro yet when, in April 2021, Nuss gifted Kloth an ankle bracelet for her birthday inscribed with "August 11, 2024."

If you're guessing that's the date of the women's finals at the Paris Olympics, you are correct.

Six-time Paralympian Oksana Masters was born in Ukraine in 1989 with radiation-related birth defects—including webbed fingers and tibial malformation—connected to the Chernobyl disaster. Growing up in Louisville, Ky., with adoptive mom Gay Masters, she underwent a number of surgeries, including respective leg amputations at 9 and 14—after which she took up rowing.

But sun, snow... It's all the same for the seven-time gold medalist, who has three Winter Paralympics as a para-cross-country skier and para-biathlete and three Summer Paralympics as a para-cyclist and para-rower under her belt heading into Paris, where she'll compete in cycling events.

After finishing just shy of the podium in Tokyo, surfer Caroline Marks is ready to ride her 2023 world title to Olympic victory in... Well, not Paris. All of the surfing will be taking place at Teahupo'o on Tahiti, nearly 10,000 miles away from the rest of the festivities.

Swimmer Jessica Long, whose Instagram bio reads "Born without legs + living my best life," is headed to her sixth Paralympics. The 29-time medalist, 16 of them gold, is pretty much just racing for bragging rights at this point. 

Las Vegas Aces, um, ace and two-time WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson will be leading the U.S. women's basketball team in their quest for their eighth straight gold medal. (The men are looking for only their fifth straight, having been vanquished in 2004.)

Butterfly and freestylin' fool Caeleb Dressel won five gold medals in Tokyo, no big deal, to bring his career Olympic gold tally to seven. Paris will be the swimmer's third Games and first as a dad, having welcomed son August Wilder Dressel with wife Meghan Dressel in February. 

After Jessica Parratto earned a silver medal in Tokyo for women's synchronized 10m platform with partner Delaney Schnell—Team USA's first-ever medal in that event—the 5-foot-2 athlete retired to, as she told NBC Sports, "finally be a normal person."

She did that for, like, a year until Schnell wooed her back into the pool. But to be clear, Parratto said of her return before they qualified for Paris, "I didn’t do it because she wanted me to. I really did it because I wanted to."

But she doesn't mind the camaraderie, either. When Schnell banged her feet at the Montreal Diving World Cup in May, Parratto's first international event back from retirement, "it was a really good bonding moment for us," she said, "and just being like, okay, we got this."

The U.S. men do gymnastics, too, and Fred Richard was the top scorer on both nights of the 2024 Olympic Trials. Obviously fans will flip if the 2023 NCAA all-around (and horizontal bars, and parallel bars) champion from University of Michigan helps the national team make an Olympic podium for the first time since 2008.