Stephen Nedoroscik became a social media sensation during the Paris Olympics and his participation in ‘Dancing With the Stars’ only increased his fame. But with the limelight on him, a lot of attention was also on the medical conditions that affect the gymnast—strabismus, and coloboma (two eye disorders) as well as asthma. So people could finally understand the reason behind his Clark Kent-like glasses and why he would remove them before performing the pommel horse—so that he didn’t drop them while performing. But what is the story behind him getting diagnosed with the two eye conditions?

Well, Nedoroscik was on ‘The Squeeze’ for an interview where ‘Twilight ‘-famed actor, Taylor Lautner and his wife, who is also named Taylor, discussed the gymnast’s childhood and health conditions.

Taylor Dome: “How old were you when you were diagnosed with them [eye conditions]?”
Stephen Nedoroscik: “Straight up the womb. The doctor looked at me and said, ‘he is cross-eyed and got coloboma’. They are pretty easily detectable things, right away. Especially looking at a baby and being like, ‘Oh man, his pupils are big.'”
Taylor Dome: “Have you thought about having another surgery? The one that you had as a kid or you have just learned how to..?”
Stephen Nedoroscik: “I have always thought about what surgeries are available for my conditions. For the cross-eyedness one, just like glasses and stuff, it’s so unnoticeable. I don’t really care at all if my eye looks like crossed. But with the coloboma, you know I am always looking at what options are there to fill the iris in, so I am not sensitive to light. And there are some really cool options like my mom is about to go and have an operation done where they’re going to tattoo her eye to act like an iris.”

Nedoroscik’s eye condition makes his eyes sensitive to light. For instance, back in July, during an interview with TODAY, Nedoroscik was seen wearing sunglasses because the interview venue was too bright. But what’s the root cause behind his eye condition? Hear it from the gymnast himself.

Taylor Dome: “Does she have it too [eye conditions]?”
Stephen Nedoroscik: “Ya, she has it in one eye and then, my sister has it in one eye. I am the one who is lucky enough to get it in both eyes.”
Taylor Dome: “Is that a genetically passed down thing?”
Stephen Nedoroscik: “Ya, so we have the congenital coloboma, and some of my cousins have it but somehow, I just got really lucky and managed to get the worse of it that my family has ever seen.”

Coloboma happens when the eye doesn’t develop adequately before birth and that can result in missing tissue. While it can be genetically passed down, it can also happen randomly, too. So after Taylor Lautner heard all the history about Nedoroscik, he had a pertinent question that stemmed from his own training in extreme martial arts, which was a combination of traditional karate and gymnastics.

Taylor Lautner: “How does it affect how you go about gymnastics, training-wise? Does it alter that in any way or how does that work?”
Stephen Nedoroscik: “Especially when I was doing all the events, it did affect how I trained, especially with events like vault. I remember, I’d be competing and I’d have to have my teammates tell me when the judge froze his hand and on vault I’d always have this issue where I’d kick out early because I have no depth perception.”

The gymnasts went on to say he wasn’t good at vault because of his eye condition and something similar would happen with high bars and parallel bars, as he was more prone to missing the bars than other gymnasts.

Stephen Nedoroscik: How his tough journey inspired a kid with coloboma

When no one could ever imagine that anyone with serious medical conditions could reach this level, Stephen Nedoroscik surprised everyone out there with not just his Paris Olympics win but also his debut as a dancer on ‘Dancing With The Stars’.

But on July 30, NBC Olympics posted a story that would inspire anyone. Emily Fox—a mother— who was in Paris for the Olympics was busy scrolling her phone when something caught her eye. She saw a post about Nedoroscik and how he dealt with coloboma—the same condition that her seven-year-old son, Porter, had.

So he followed the gymnast on Instagram and left him a message of support. But soon the TODAY Show crew found the family and Emily’s two kids got to hang out with Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb. However, when Emily made a remark that her son Porter too had the same eye condition as Nedoroscik, one of the crew’s interns quickly disappeared, only to reappear with Stephen Nedoroscik.

For the first time in Porter’s life, he met someone with the same condition. “Porter said to me, ‘Mom, I really thought I was the only person with coloboma,’” Emily Fox said. “I always tell him that other people have it. I’ve showed him pictures. But, as a kid, until you physically meet someone else, you just think you’re the only one.”

But what was Nedoroscik’s message to the young kid? “Stephen told him, ‘Remember, you can do anything. Don’t ever let [coloboma] hold you back,’” the mother recalled.