Once in a while, an unlikely American hero emerges from an Olympic games, and that hero at the 2024 Paris Olympics might just be Team USA’s glasses-wearing pommel horse specialist, Stephen Nedoroscik.
The 25-year-old gymnast from Worcester, Massachusetts, helped break Team USA’s 16-year Olympic medal drought, clinching the bronze and launching him to viral fame with his epic team final performance.
It’s not just that he delivered when it counted most; it’s the unexpectedness of his story. Nedoroscik showed up to the Olympics looking less like an elite gymnast and more like a guy getting a PhD in astrophysics. He had one job, and he cheered for his teammates while waiting for his big moment. And then, in true hero fashion, he took of his thick, wide-rimmed glasses and performed superhuman feats on the pommel horse.
But that’s not all. As writer Whitney Fleming pointed out, there’s an important life lesson buried in Nedoroscik’s story that shouldn’t get lost in the celebration.
“Sometimes, the world needs a Simone Biles to blow us away with raw talent, and sometimes, we need someone like Stephen Nedoroscik to remind us that a nerdy (his words), bespectacled engineer who can solve a Rubik’s Cube in under 10 seconds can be a hero,” Fleming wrote on Facebook before sharing why she loves his story.
“When he didn’t progress in gymnastics like he wanted to, he threw himself into the one event he excelled at: the pommel horse. He’s won all sorts of competitions as an event specialist, and literally was put on the team because he scores so big on this one apparatus.
During today’s team finals, he spent the day bringing his teammates water, giving high fives, and cheering on every performance with incredible enthusiasm. And then it was his turn.
Nedoroscik was the last athlete to compete on the team’s last rotation. He needed to hit his routine for the Americans to end a 16-year medal drought. No pressure.
It was a build-up right out of an iconic sports movie (Do you believe in miracles?)
While the pressure kept building in the gym, he meditated. A slight smile crept onto his face when he heard the cheers for his teammate’s score. And then, like Clark Kent turning into Superman, he took off his jacket, removed his glasses, and puffed out his chest–and HE KILLED IT!”
Fleming shared the lesson we can all take from Nedoroscik’s unusual success story:
“Nedoroscik took an untraditional path to get to the pinnacle of his sport and it paid off with an Olympic Bronze medal.
There is no one way to success, there is no one way to do this life, and there is no one way to find your purpose.
Be unapologetically and unabashedly you in every way possible, and you might end up the hero of your story as well.”
That’s such an important lesson to share with our kids, who may look at big name athletes and start believing there are limited ways to find success. The reality is every story is unique, every person has their own way of doing things, and there’s no “right” path to achieve your goals, whatever they may be.
Thank you, Stephen Nedoroscik, for being a delightful example and the hero we didn’t know we needed.
You can follow Whitney Fleming on Facebook and Instagram, and find her upcoming book, “You’re Not a Failure: My Teen Doesn’t Like Me Either,” here.
(And in case you missed Stephen Nedoroscik’s team final pommel horse routine, here you go.)