Stephen Nedoroscik Brings Olympic Spotlight to Glasses Wearers and Eye Conditions

The 25-year-old U.S. gymnast, Stephen Nedoroscik, finished third in the pommel horse event on Saturday, merely five days after aiding the American men’s team in clinching its first Olympic medal in 16 years.

PARIS, France — Nedoroscik is embracing his newfound celebrity status as a geeky, bespectacled, Rubik’s Cube-solving video gamer who now boasts two bronze medals from the Paris Olympics.

“It’s still just surreal to me. I wake up in the morning, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m a two-time Olympic medalist!’ It is so cool,” Nedoroscik expressed to The Associated Press. With his medals around his neck, he marveled at his ascent to fame and the spotlight his gymnastics specialty is receiving.

Aside from his athletic prowess, Nedoroscik has won over viewers with his endearing personality and nerdy quirks. Video snippets of him conscientiously removing his glasses before mounting the pommel horse have surged online, drawing comparisons to Clark Kent morphing into Superman.

“The memes are hilarious and I’m loving them all,” he said, chuckling.

Beyond the humorous memes, Nedoroscik has drawn attention to coloboma, an eye condition where part of the eye tissue is missing. Fans have lauded him for being an inspiration to children who wear glasses. “Even just last week, for the first time, I met someone else who has the same eye condition as me,” he recounted, describing his interaction with a young boy and his appreciative mother.

He maintained his composure by using breathing exercises to steady his heart rate before each performance. “The whole time I’m telling myself, ‘you’re excited, let’s go out there and show people like, this is a performance! Let’s go and have fun with it,’” Nedoroscik recalls.

Growing up in Worcester, Massachusetts, Nedoroscik’s early fascination with climbing led him to gymnastics. “When I was real little – basically before I could walk, I was already climbing up the walls in my house, scaring the babysitters. So it didn’t take long for my parents to put me in one of those preschool gyms,” he explained.

From being nicknamed “monkey boy” to becoming the “horse guy,” Nedoroscik credits his engineering background at Penn State University for his success on the pommel horse. “Horse guy culture is totally a thing. A lot of horse specialists are engineers or really smart people. They’re just kind of fun, nerdy people,” he said.

With the Olympics behind him, Nedoroscik is eager to savor Paris, particularly its culinary offerings. Next on his list: Escargot.