NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The glasses haven’t gone anywhere. And they aren’t going anywhere. The same goes for Stephen Nedoroscik’s hair, which remains a bit of a floppy, curly brown mess.
Nor, insists the gymnast who became forever known as “Pommel Horse Guy” after winning a pair of bronze medals in Paris, has his devotion to the discipline that made him one of the breakout stars of the 2024 Olympics faded in the least.
While Nedoroscik leaned into the fame, most notably a long run on “Dancing With the Stars” last fall, followed immediately by a stint co-hosting the show’s national tour, he never once considered putting away his grips for good and trying to go Hollywood full-time.
Sorry, that was never the point of all this.
Three months ago, Nedoroscik walked back through the doors of EVO Gymnastics in Florida and quietly went back to work. And when the U.S. Championships begin on Thursday night, he’ll hop onto the event that, at 26, he remains in some ways obsessed with after all these years and begin again.
“At the end of the day, I am a gymnast and I blew up for being a gymnast,” Nedoroscik said. “And I have sort of a mindset where I don’t really want to be famous. I get, like, anxiety. So it’s like I kind of accept the fact that having this moment was amazing, but eventually that wave will end.”
In a way, Nedoroscik hopped off before he had a chance to be pushed. He’s well aware of the tropes of all the teen movies where the main character starts off as an outcast of sorts, then one flash of talent, one splash of popularity, and one makeover montage later, they emerge as a different person.
He had no interest in sticking to that script, though the lure is certainly intoxicating.
When he drilled his dismount at Bercy Arena during the men’s team final last July to clinch the biggest international medal by the U.S. men’s gymnastics program since the 2008 Olympics, he didn’t think it would lead to a spot on “The Tonight Show,” with host Jimmy Fallon rapping a song on how to spell his name.
The only contestant in “Dancing With the Stars” two-decade run to incorporate a pommel horse into a dance routine didn’t imagine being a fixture on national television for two months either. Yet that happened too. Quickly followed by weeks crisscrossing the country as one of the faces of the show’s annual tour.
While he appreciated the support, the messages to his Instagram account that cut through the noise the most weren’t the ones talking about the way he navigated a ballroom floor, but from mothers who saw Nedoroscik and his American teammates triumph in Paris and decided it was time to sign their sons up for a sport that always seems to be fighting for its survival.
“Like that’s what it’s all about, honestly, because this is a great sport,” he said. “And I think it’s the best sport, especially for hyper kids like I was.”
That almost relentless energy hasn’t gone anywhere.
Sharing a stage with Olympic teammates on Wednesday afternoon, Nedoroscik leaned over to Brody Malone and asked how his hair looked. When Malone responded “disgusting” in the kind of good-naturedly sarcastic tone that has been the love language of guys everywhere for eons, Nedoroscik’s laugh echoed throughout the room.
It’s one of the many reasons Nedoroscik is happy to be back to what passes for his normal. He understands competing just three months after returning to training might be asking a bit much of his body. The early weeks in the gym were humbling and eye-opening. Yet interspersed with the aches and pains were the occasional reminders that yeah, he’s still pretty good at this.
How good? Well, that’s one of the reasons the Worcester, Massachusetts, native is already pointing toward the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. There’s a chance his best gymnastics might still be ahead of him.
“I love to just push myself as far as I can go and I love to ride this wave, like right on the edge of possibility and like, ‘Am I gonna just die out there?’” he said. “But I do it for the thrill and I do it for the love of the sport, so I want to keep going.”
While keeping it real at the same time. Asked how he stayed grounded as his profile soared, he shrugged. While his number of followerson social media has swelled to over a million, his head remains in very much the same place.
“I do think it is sort of my inherent nature to just stick true to myself,” he said. “I don’t really try to put up a fake face in any situation that I’m in and I think so long as I do that, I am not going to change.”
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