DWTS contestants and Olympic bronze medalists Stephen Nedoroscik and Ilona Maher have had a very busy year. Despite community hatred that deemed his Olympic qualification unworthy, Stephen waited for hours for his only chance as his teammates rotated through the other five events. NBC airing a countdown to inaugurate his mount did little to add to the hype but this one post where he had his eyes closed with glasses on did the rounds: 575,000 likes in total, to be precise. And that’s all Maher confessed to knowing about the Clark Kent-lookalike.

“I think people fell in love with this personality in such a quick moment. This would be really a great time for them to get to know him better too,” Ilona admitted two weeks before the 33rd season of DWTS debuted… A similar admission that Stephen’s partner Rylee Arnold too confessed in the Nov 8 episode of the Scrubbing In with Becca Tilley and Tanya Rad podcast.

“I feel like I find talking about them a lot. They’re just like really cute when they like to interact, ’cause they’re both like, I dunno, just have that athlete mentality. The funny thing is they never really interacted at the Olympics because it was just so big.

“So, their events never really like crossed over. But to see them talk and like have this like competitive banter is like, we love it.” 

Talking about Ilona, Rylee has a special fondness for her. She said, “I love her. She’s the best. I just love her so much, and she’s so funny. Like, anytime you talk to her, you’ll just laugh. Like literally p** your pants. She’s so funny.” Rylee also referred to her TikToks, which was an example of how funny Ilona Maher really is. Her humor and Tiktok led Rylee to nickname her the “Queen.” Rylee’s words can’t ring more true than this. On Sept 13, Ilona posted a video of the two Olympians engaging in a rock, paper, scissor game, only Maher called it a “dual.”

Captioning the post, “Don’t find the loud gum chewing” referencing herself for her incessant chewing, a video text box candidly mentioned, “Just two Olympians locked in a very serious Rock, Paper, Scissor dual.” So, who won the round?

Ilona! The person behind the camera who was clearly supporting the rugby player, saying “He’s trying to get to your head. Don’t listen to him, Ilona,” joined in celebrations!

But the dancer could pat herself on the back too, as she is doing a splendid job at the show. In fact, she is the reason Stephen Nedoroscik has gone so far in the competition despite struggling with dancing.

Stephen Nedoroscik: “I’m a very cowardly and scared dancer”

On his appearance in a YouTube video by Josh Scherer, Stephen Nedoroscik admitted that he still has apprehensions about dancing. While the gymnast has earned quite a lot of praise from judges and fans for his performances in Dancing with the Stars, he still can’t seem to shake off the fear involved with performing moves on the stage that don’t involve gymnastics.

Josh asked him, “Most people would see you on the pommel horse and be like, ‘Surely this man is a confident and good dancer’.” However, the gymnast’s answer indicated quite the opposite.

“Well, those people would be very wrong. I’m a very cowardly and scared dancer. Getting on Dancing with the Stars, like, I never would’ve thought… Like an insecurity of mine is dancing. When I’m at the club, I’m usually in the corner.”

Despite this, he has been performing to its fullest, determined to get his hands on the coveted mirror ball. According to him, it will all come down to dedication and hard work: “The thing is, as long as you go a hundred percent, you won’t ever really look stupid.”