The 2024 Olympics are underway in Paris, France, and as usual, the gymnastics events are getting people talking. While Simone Biles is frequently the subject of discussion (and well-earned praise), an athlete from the United States men's team is getting some name recognition of his own after going viral. Stephen Nedoroscik has been dubbed the "pommel horse hero" for helping the team win the bronze medal, which was the first medal of U.S. men in gymnastics in sixteen years.
And while I'm not nearly enough of a gymnastics expert that I wasn't intrigued by the Law & Order Thursday promotion during NBC's Olympics commercial breaks, I did get a thrill out of watching the pommel horse performance and a kick out of the commentators dropping a Hamilton reference after the men medaled. Count me in for a reaction from prolific songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda!
Why Stephen Nedoroscik Went Viral
There are always some athletes who go viral during an Olympics cycle for reasons that can extend beyond just their skill in their sport. Whether it was Canadian ice dancers Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue catching Leslie Jones' attention in 2018 or the drug test scandal surrounding Kamila Valieva in 2022, you never know what exactly is going to catch the interest of viewers.
After the men's gymnastics finals of 2024, however, people on social media are talking less about the wild opening ceremony and more about Stephen Nedoroscik, the 25-year-old bespectacled member of the team whose only event was pommel horse.
And thanks to the event happening well before primetime in the U.S., plenty of people had already seen or streamed Nedoroscik's awe-inspiring pommel horse performance before the NBC broadcast on July 29. There was chatter all over X (formerly known as Twitter) before, during, and after it aired on NBC, and I for one can't get enough of the hype for the "pommel horse hero" of Team USA. Here's just a sampling from social media:
- @jamiehan: "me liking every tweet about Steve the pommel horse hero and his glasses"
- @eiffeltyler: "I stay on this godforsaken app because every now and then I’m gifted with a phenomenon like pommel horse man. I didn’t know who he was two hours ago and now he is a national hero. I’m a patriot but only for pommel horse man."
- @MegWritesBooks: "Obsessed with this guy on the US men's gymnastics team who's 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."
- @chubbs260: "Absolutely sick that America brought Stephen Nedoroscik, some nerd from Massachusetts, to Paris who’s sole purpose in life is to ball out on the pommel horse. And in the biggest moment of his life. He pommeled the FUCK out of that horse. Long live pommel horse guy"
- @sportswithjohn: "People who aren't nerds don't understand how long we've been waiting for an electrical engineer from Pennsylvania POMMEL THE HELL OUT OF A HORSE."
- @KevinMcCaff: "2 days before Olympics: wait, the guys do gymnastics too? I kind of forgot. Day Olympics begins: I am more nervous about this guy’s pommel horse routine than I was before my wedding. I will die for glasses man."
The event really did play out in a way that was nearly cinematic. Stephen Nedoroscik was the last man to perform on pommel horse for the team event, and all eyes were on him as he took off his glasses and took his place for his one and only Olympics event. And dang it, he nailed it! Take a look, if you missed it:
STEPHEN NEDOROSCIK DELIVERS ON POMMEL HORSE!📺 #ParisOlympics on NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/QlNECymDYNJuly 30, 2024
The laws of gravity rarely seem to apply during Olympics gymnastics events, and that was certainly the case with the pommel horse and Nedoroscik in Paris this year. But what about the U.S. men's team earning a medal resulted in a Hamilton comparison?
The Commentators' Hamilton Comparison
It was clear that Team USA would win the bronze medal almost as soon as Stephen Nedoroscik stuck his landing off the pommel horse, leading to immediate celebration with the teammates as the gymnast put his glasses back on, Clark Kent-style. As soon as it was official that the medal drought was over for U.S. men's gymnastics, the commentators were full of praise for all of the men who competed. John Roethlisberger, a former Olympic gymnast himself, said:
I've been through the Olympics three times. It is hard. It is hard to win an Olympic medal, but these guys epitomized champions today. No mistakes. They were hungry. Like Lin-Manuel Miranda says, they were young, scrappy, and hungry! And they came in, man, and they got it done. What a performance.
I'm going to go ahead and guess that Lin-Manuel Miranda didn't have gymnastics on the brain when he wrote "My Shot" – the song that Roethlisberger was quoting – for Hamilton, but I would love to get a reaction from him about the comparison. We don't have to wait to see a reaction from Stephen Nedoroscik, though, as he posted on X:
USA BABY 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 IS THIS REAL LIFEJuly 29, 2024
It is indeed real life, but I would say that the U.S. men's gymnastics team had a Cinderella kind of story to earn their bronze medal in Paris this year. Also on the podium were Team Japan in first place for the gold and Team China in second place for the silver. Stephen Nedoroscik deserves a credit for becoming who I'd consider the first athlete to truly go viral courtesy of the 2024 Olympics.
