The world is just starting to see all the shades of Stephen Nedoroscik. From a hardworking gymnast to a celebrity on Dancing with the Stars, he seems to be capturing everyone’s hearts. But when he got back on the DWTS stage in week five, he had a mission to accomplish: take men’s gymnastics to a wider audience. With that in mind, the gymnast and his dance partner, Rylee Arnold, kicked off their Argentine Tango and Nedoroscik also presented a quick routine on the apparatus that he is known for—the pommel horse.

They earned a total of 33 points. After his performance, he revealed he dedicated it to men’s gymnastics. “Well, it wasn’t just my Olympic team. I dedicated it to the whole sport of men gymnastics. I wanted to make that a point because the sport itself has been slowly dying throughout, you know, the last couple of decades. And I want to make sure this sport not only is surviving but thriving.”

“The sport is everything. I have done it since I was four and a half. It built me up into the man I am today and, like it taught me every life lesson like long-term goals, discipline, taught me how to get good grades, believe it or not. Like I meet all these gymnasts, they are all so smart and like great people and I just think it is just a beautiful sport and I want more people to buy into it, not only as a fan but like you know the kids that are doing their front rolls in the yards, put them in gymnastics. They could be really good.”

His words resonated with his Olympic teammate Paul Juda, who, in a separate interview, said something similar. In a conversation with ‘The Tufts Daily’, he was asked if men’s gymnastics popularity after the 2024 Paris Olympics would affect the sport’s future. What was his answer?

“I have no idea what it’s going to do right now. I would love to see, in the beginning, at least some of this attention translated into younger gymnasts starting the sport, and younger gymnasts pushing club gyms to stay open and not have to close down, and then those club gyms have more influx of boys at the high school level, and then more high school level boys being able to be like, ‘Hey, I want to go to college for this’,” Juda opined, which is along the same lines of what Nedoroscik said on DWTS.

Nedoroscik and Juda aren’t wrong. There is a wide gender imbalance in the sport in the U.S. In 2014, 15,000 boys and 90,000 girls competed in gymnastics. And in the 2023-24 season, just about 12,000 boys competed, compared to 138,000 girls.

Could the U.S. men’s gymnastics great run at Paris help save the sport? After all, the team broke a 16-year Olympic drought with a team bronze. While there is no answer to this question, the current situation looks somber.

Stephen Nedoroscik: Did a new era of U.S. men’s gymnastics start?

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, fans waited with enthusiasm to watch Simone Biles, Suni Lee, and the rest of the ladies perform. While they exceeded expectations, the U.S. men’s gymnastics surprised people. For many, it was their first time watching the sport.

Not only did the men break a 16-year Olympic drought with a team bronze, but Stephen Nedoroscik’s individual bronze medal on the pommel horse made things even better.

Beijing 2008 was the last time the US men’s team won a medal, but the momentum didn’t last. Justin Spring, who was part of the Beijing group, went on to become a head coach for men’s gymnastics at the University of Illinois, and throughout his tenure, he saw a trend that troubled him: Colleges in the country were cutting out the men’s gymnastics programs.

Back in the 70s, over 150 universities offered men’s gymnastics programs, but today, only 12 Division I teams exist. So the opportunities to get into the sport are thin. In fact, Nedoroscik and Juda’s teammate, Fred Richard, also shared his opinions earlier this year. “You know, we’re in a sport where there’s not as many viewers. You know, it’s a much smaller sport, especially on the men’s side,” he opined.

This is quite saddening because in the 40s and 50s, high schools in almost every state had boys’ gymnastics programs and so did colleges. In fact, the college system produces a lot of successful athletes. Take the 2024 Paris Olympics, for instance. Team USA’s athletes came via the college route.

• Asher Hong: Stanford University
• Frederick Richard: University of Michigan
• Paul Juda: University of Michigan
• Brody Malone: Stanford University
• Stephen Nedoroscik: Penn State University

Do you think colleges should take men’s gymnastics more seriously? Let us know in the comments below.