The American men's gymnastic team ended its 16-year medal drought at the Olympics on Monday—and the bronze medal win in the team final was sealed by Stephen Nedoroscik, who has become America's "pommel horse hero," according to Emily Giambalvo at the Washington Post. The pommel horse is the 25-year-old Nedoroscik's specialty, and the decision to include the Penn State graduate on the team was seen as a risky one, the Huffington Post reports. He was on the sidelines for almost three hours before his 40-second routine clinched the medal win.
"People were worried he was going to hurt the team," coach Sam Mikulak tells the Post. "And he was the one to [clinch] it in the end. It's like a Cinderella story, fairy-tale ending." Syque Caesar, another coach, describes Nedoroscik, a big Rubik's Cube and video game fan, as "quirky, funny, goofy." During Monday's event, he became a huge hit on social media, with some comparing him to Clark Kent because of his glasses, NBC News reports.
"Obsessed with this guy on the US men's gymnastics team who's [sic] only job is pommel horse, 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," one fan wrote in a post on X. Nedoroscik told the Today show that he enjoyed the memes and the Clark Kent comparisons. "In a way it is kind of like that," he said. "You know, I'm a goofy guy with the glasses on, but as soon as I take them off I'm locked in. I'm ready to go." Nedoroscik will have a chance to win an individual gold in the apparatus final on Saturday. (More 2024 Paris Olympics stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
