Stephen Nedoroscik Pommel Horse Guy

About

Stephen Nedoroscik, also known as the Pommel Horse Guy, is an American gymnast best known for his pommel horse routine in the 2024 Summer Paris Olympics. Nedoroscik went viral for sitting with his eyes closed for the duration of the competition while wearing glasses until he was finally called for his last and singular event, winning his team their first bronze medal since 2008. Memes about Nedoroscik being a "sleeper agent" and about how his job is "horse" began making the rounds online in late July 2024.

Background

Stephen Nedoroscik was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, and began practicing gymnastics at a young age in 2003. When Nedoroscik reached high school, he began to specialize in pommel horse after realizing that it was his strongest sport. He came to be known for competing in goggles which were originally a Secret Santa gift for him from Penn State teammate Ben Cooperman.

In 2024, Nedoroscik won the national title for the pommel horse, which led to him being selected for the 2024 US Nationals Team and helped him qualify for the 2024 US Olympic Trials.

History

On July 29th, 2024, the United States men's gymnastics team competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics, with Brody Malone, Frederick Richard, Asher Hong, Paul Juda, and Stephen Nedoroscik cinching the country's first medal in the sport since 2008.

Many internet users took note of Nedoroscik during the event, noting that he sat down with his eyes mostly closed until he was called upon for the last round, a pummel horse routine that Nedoroscik was solely recruited for (seen below).^[1]

Stephen Nedoroscik had to score big on pommel horse for Team USA in the last rotation…

AND HE DID. 🤯

📺: NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/hkhiHpovyh

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 29, 2024

Online Presence

Various internet users posted memes about Nedoroscik and his supposed "nerd" credentials after his team's win in late July 2024, with Redditor /u/birthday6 posting a screenshot^[2] on July 29th, 2024, of an article showing how Nedoroscik likes to play Rocket League to a subreddit about the game. The post, captioned, "One of us!" gathered over 600 upvotes in a day (seen below, left).

On the same day, John Green took to his X^[3] / Twitter account to post about Nedoroscik's affinity for solving Rubik's cubes in under 10 seconds, gathering over 36,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).

Also on July 29th, X^[4] user @BrightCuPenny posted a My Ken's Job meme that read, "This Ken's job is Horse," gathering over 40,000 likes in a day (seen below).

On July 29th, 2024, X^[5] user @sydreyn2 posted a The Deep meme about Nedoroscik, gathering over 10,000 likes in a day (seen below).

stephen nedoroscik hearing it’s finally time for pommel horsepic.twitter.com/Bkzvo8qODH

— syd reynolds (@sydreyn2) July 29, 2024

Nedoroscik's Response

On July 30th, the U.S. men's gymnastics team appeared on the Today^[6] show, where Nedoroscik talked about how much he enjoyed the meme attention his performance received. The athlete could be seen wearing sunglasses on the show, a choice he chalked down to his sensitive vision.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References