American gymnast Steven Nedorosik wins bronze in the pommel horse final at the Paris Olympics.
Jamie Squire/Getty Images
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Jamie Squire/Getty Images
PARIS — U.S. gymnast Stephen Nedorosik, affectionately known as “The Pommel Horse Man” on social media, won a bronze medal in the Olympic pommel horse final.
Five days after his pommel horse performance earned the United States a historic medal in the team all-around, Nedorosik returned to compete in the individual events at the Arena Bercy in Paris.
Before he began, he took off his Clark Kent-esque glasses that had endeared himself to so many viewers and hung them on the rim of the chalk bowl. Then comes his routine, about 40 seconds of him swinging his legs mesmerizingly in circles around the horse, spinning the handle with one hand and walking back and forth on the device.
Nedorosik tied for the top score in qualifying last weekend, boosting her hopes of a gold medal in the final. But some players proved more challenging in Saturday’s event, including Ireland’s Rhys McClenaghan, who won the event at last year’s world championships and posted a 15.533 on Saturday. Won the gold medal again. Kazakh player Nariman Kurbanov won the silver medal.
In the end, Nedorosik won the bronze medal with a score of 15.3 points. Nedorosik is the only U.S. male gymnast to qualify for the equipment finals.
Pommel horse specialist Nedorosik was selected to the U.S. men’s gymnastics team to make up for what team officials saw as relative weaknesses in the rest of the team.
In the team finals, Team USA was assigned to the pommel horse for one final rotation. Nedorozczyk came in last, meaning it was his moves that earned the U.S. the bronze medal, the country’s first team medal in 16 years.
But before that happens, he has to wait to see how his teammates perform in five other events; in the broadcast, NBC even included a countdown timer showing the hour after hour Nedorosik sat on the sidelines. “I’m looking at this in my head as a positive, like I can be an exclamation point,” rather than letting the pressure build, he said.
His calm demeanor while waiting caught the attention of social media users. So does the act of taking off his glasses and hanging them on his chalk stand as he goes about his daily activities. (“It’s all feeling,” he later told reporters. “I see it with my hands.”)
As he finished his routine, teammates erupted in cheers and hoisted him onto their shoulders. “I think that was the greatest moment of my life and I’m happy to be there,” Nedorosik said.
