PARIS — "Pommel Horse Guy" got back on the pommel horse Saturday afternoon.
And once again, he will leave with an Olympic medal.
After an insane week filled with sudden internet fame, Stephen Nedoroscik became just the second American man in four decades to medal in pommel horse at the Paris Games, hanging on to win bronze in a thrilling final at Bercy Arena.
The 25-year-old beat out two-time defending Olympic champion Max Whitlock of Great Britain for the final spot on the podium, finishing fractions of a point behind gold medalist Rhys McClenaghan of Ireland and Nariman Kurbanov of Kazakhstan, who took silver.
"I've just been consistently on top of this world for the last week now,"a giddy Nedoroscik said in a news conference Saturday. "I literally had to go and turn off my notifications yesterday because I needed to lock in for this competition."
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It's been five days since most of the country first got to know Nedoroscik, the bespectacled 25-year-old electrical engineering major out of Penn State who helped the U.S. men's gymnastics team win bronze.
For the past eight years, he's been something of an anomaly even within the world of gymnastics − one of the handful of event-specific specialists in a sport where the all-arounders tend to be stars. In his singular event, he is a maestro, the winner of four consecutive national championships and even a world title in 2021. But his limited range sometimes left him on the fringe of national team consideration, never a lock even to make the five-man U.S. Olympic team.
Then, in a twist, Nedoroscik not only made the team but delivered a clutch performance in the last rotation of the team final, effectively clinching Team USA's first Olympic medal in the event in 16 years. Large swaths of the internet soon became enamored by the glasses-wearing, Rubik's Cube-solving pommel horse specialist, who describes himself as "quirky."
"(I) love the amount of kudos he's getting for the team finals results," McClenaghan said. "And I absolutely love that everyone's like finding out about Stephen Nedoroscik."
In memes and social media posts, Nedoroscik was likened to Clark Kent, the nerdy alter ego of Superman, and hailed as an American hero. An eyewear brand gave him an endorsem*nt deal. He solved a Rubik's Cube in front of the television cameras on NBC. Author John Green, who wrote "The Fault in Our Stars," even tweeted about it. ("That was insane," Nedoroscik said with a smile.)
All told, his following on Instagram ballooned to more than a quarter million followers from a couple thousand of them, all in a span of a few days. Newspapers started writing about his girlfriend, Tess McCracken. "Sorry ladies," one headline read, "(he) is taken."
"It's just been unbelievable, the amount of people reaching out, following me, making memes of me," he said.
"I'm glad that people are making memes of me. I think it's so funny. It's almost surreal to finally wind down after a day of workout and go on TikTok and see someone made a meme of me."
By Friday, however, Nedoroscik decided he had to stop scrolling through all those memes and cut off media interviews, to focus on the competition. He prioritized monotony to stay sane, trying to repeat the same pre-competition routines and maintain the little things he's started doing in Paris − all the way down to what he eats for breakfast. ("Six pieces of green apple," he said "with a chocolate muffin.")
He spent the morning before the final listening to music and solving his Rubik's Cube, almost in a meditative state. He usually times how long it takes for him to solve the Rubik's Cube and views anything under 10 seconds as a positive omen. One of his times Saturday? 9.7.
"I solved the Rubik's Cube a couple hundred times, got myself another sub-10, so that's about all I needed for this competition," he said.
Nedoroscik was the only U.S. man to qualify for an apparatus final at the Paris Olympics. His score of 15.300 included an excellent mark for execution (8.900) on this notoriously tricky event, and moved him one tenth of a point ahead of Whitlock. McClenaghan and Kurbanov won out with more difficult routines.
The Worcester, Massachusetts native becomes just the second U.S. man in recent history to win a pommel horse medal, joining 2016 bronze medalist Alex Naddour. The Americans also won both gold and bronze medals in the event at the 1984 Games, which were boycotted by most Eastern bloc countries.
As for what's next, Nedoroscik said he definitely intends to train for the next Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028. He's eager to spend time with his family, and McCracken. He's been nursing some stress injuries in his wrist, elbows and back and is excited to give them some rest.
"For the next month of my life, it's going to be: Let's chill," he said.
A reporter asked jokingly if, after that month, he'd be hosting "Saturday Night Live." Nedoroscik laughed. After the week he's had, it seems like anything is possible.
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @Tom_Schad.
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