He’s got cool glasses, can solve a Rubik’s Cube in nine seconds, and is going viral. Meet Worcester gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik. - The Boston Globe (2024)

Read more about Olympics gymnastics

• ‘We gave everything:’ The US men gymnastics team stayed focused, and came away with the medal they always dreamed about
• As his team is written into history, Stoughton’s Frederick Richard at the center of it all, living the American dream
• How Worcester’s Stephen Nedoroscik produced a ‘fairy tale’ finish for US men’s gymnastics

Nedoroscik was born and raised in Worcester

A 2016 graduate of Worcester Tech, Nedoroscik trains at Sterling Academy of Gymnastics in Worcester. Nedoroscik, 25, he began his gymnastics journey in 2003. Gymnastics was the only sport he played in high school and decided to focus solely on pommel horse after winning the Junior Olympic Nationals in 2015 and 2016, his only times competing in the event.

He is a pommel horse specialist

Unlike some other gymnasts who learn all six disciplines (floor, vault, parallel bars, horizontal bar, pommel horse, and still rings), Nedoroscik stars on just one: pommel horse.

He is appearing in his first Olympics after narrowly missing out on being a part of the 2021 Tokyo roster. At the team qualification on Saturday, Nedoroscik scored a 15.2, the highest score for any American gymnast through the qualification.

“I really wanted to make the Olympic team,” Nedoroscik said after the win on Monday. “I knew that there was going to be backlash to it. I do one event compared to these guys that are all-arounders, phenomenal all-arounders. I’m a phenomenal horse guy, but it’s hard to fit on a five-guy team.

“I think I kind of used that as motivation a little bit. In the gym, I was like, ‘Let’s prove these people wrong. Let’s show them I am consistent. Let’s show them I can do it for Team USA.’ I think I did that tonight.”

Watch his routine here:

He won two national championships at Penn State

Nedoroscik didn’t go on any recruiting trips out of high school, but landed in Happy Valley.

Joining the Nittany Lions in college, Nedoroscik instantly made an impact, securing the 2017 and 2018 pommel horse titles at the national championships.

Nedoroscik won the Nissen Emery Award in 2020, given to the nation’s most outstanding senior college gymnast. He continued his success after graduating with a degree in electrical engineering, winning United State pommel horse championships in four consecutive years, from 2021-24. His four US pommel horse titles are the tied for the most in American history.

He sports a signature pair of goggles (and can solve a Rubik’s Cube incredibly quickly)

Have you seen his goggles? They are not prescribed, yet play an integral role in his look and his confidence. A secret Santa gift in 2017 while at Penn State from teammate Ben Cooperman, Nedoroscik began to wear them as a joke. When he continued to excel, he decided to keep them and has not broken the superstition since. Now, the goggles have become indelibly linked with the pommel horse specialist.

Oh, and he’s smart: Nedoroscik boasts in his Tik Tok bio that his personal best at solving a Rubik’s Cube is 8.664 seconds.

Nedoroscik isn’t the only gymnast on Team USA from Massachusetts.

Frederick Richard, who grew up in Stoughton and trains in Millis, competed in rings, parallel bars, the horizontal bar, and floor in the team final. He has bigger dreams than a bronze medal, though. He wants the world to know his name. Read more from Adam Himmelsbach.

He’s going viral

The internet loves Nedoroscik.

He was featured heavily on the NBC broadcast in the lead-up to his routine in large part because he waited more than two hours to compete. And when he won, admirers came out of the woodwork.

Here are some of the best reactions to his success:

And US senator Ed Markey even weighed in.

He’s not done yet

Nedoroscik is the only US male gymnast to qualify for an apparatus final. He’ll compete for a pommel horse medal on Saturday, Aug. 3.

Cam Kerry can be reached at cam.kerry@globe.com. Katie McInerney can be reached at katie.mcinerney@globe.com. Follow her @k8tmac.