Since leaving Paris, Stephen Nedoroscik has kept his two Olympic medals close to his chest — literally. The gymnast wore both of his bronze medals around his neck during a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. They’re the biggest rewards of his 2024 Paris Olympics experience. The surge of viral memes that followed his first pommel horse routine was extra.
“Going into that competition, I had big dreams, big hopes, and to come out and look back and say, ‘Oh, my gosh, I actually did that,’ it is an unbelievable feeling,” Nedoroscik said. The athlete became an official commentator as Fallon played his first medal-winning pommel horse routine for him to watch. “Right here is always the skill I’m worried about,” he noted as he twisted around in the video, carefully determining his hand placement. “One, two, three, four, five,” he said, counting himself off. “That’s what I say in my head.”
Nedoroscik beamed with the same pride watching the clip as he did when he stuck the landing in Paris. “It’s so good to rewatch it,” he said. In the moment, he was fully locked in. The viral “sleeper mode” meme of the athlete with his held tilted back and eyes closed wasn’t picturing him sleeping, but rather clearing his head before having to perform. “We get there earlier and then warm up and then march out and compete. So it was like five hours or so,” he explained. “So finally when it got to horse, I needed to calm down.”
When Nedoroscik caught wind of his viral surge prior to competing in the finals, he had to do a similar reset. “I learned shortly after, and then going into that pommel horse final, I had to literally turn my notifications off,” he said, “so I didn’t get too absorbed into it all.” When he’s sitting with his head held back and Clark Kent glasses on, the gymnast is often visualizing his routine over and over. His win marked the first Olympic medal for the U.S. men’s gymnastics team in 16 years.
He doesn’t have the same preparation process for his skills that come with much lower stakes. When Fallon mixes up a Rubik’s Cube for him to solve, Nedoroscik takes a few seconds to glance it over — then only 15 more seconds to complete it.
