Stephen Nedoroscik became a viral sensation at the Paris Olympics after earning two bronze medals for Team USA on the pommel horse. However, it wasn’t just his skill that earned him fame; it was how he took off his glasses every time before his routine. The move earned him the moniker of Team USA’s Clark Kent. It turns out the 25-year-old has even more in common with Superman’s journalist than you’d think.

Just as Clark Kent didn’t really need glasses in the comics, Nedoroscik’s famous specs aren’t prescription. While the gymnastics icon has an eye condition where his pupils are permanently dilated, he never needed glasses to navigate the pommel horse. In fact, the Olympian received his first pair of Req Specs as a Secret Santa gift during his freshman year at Penn State.

“They are simply for fun. And you know, kind of my trademark. I like to have fun out there. So that’s my thing. You know, the first time I hit a routine in NCAA, I beat the year’s previous NCAA Champion, and it was the first competition, I put the specs on.” Stephen Nedoroscik told WPSU in 2022. Thus began a ritual that has lasted to this day.

The Paris 2024 double bronze medalist started wearing those specs to every competition following his NCAA triumph. While it took a few more years for the 25-year-old to reach his potential, Nedoroscik became the pommel horse NCAA champion in 2021 and 2022. However, just because Nedoroscik doesn’t wear prescription glasses doesn’t mean his eye condition isn’t an issue.

“He’s had to deal with this problem as a gymnast his whole life. He never complained about it. It was always just something we knew about him,” Liz Gonzalez, Stephen Nedoroscik’s former trainer at Sterling Gymnastics, told the New York Times. However, the Nittany Lions member’s senior classmates thought he could pull wearing goggles on the gymnastics floor, and they were right.

While Stephen Nedoroscik retired the original Rec Specs he got as a gift, the gymnast continues the tradition. However, the glasses aren’t the only competition day essential that the gymnast keeps handy.

Stephen Nedoroscik has a special ritual

The Olympian considered the specs his trademark since his freshman year at Penn State Gymnastics. However, now they’ve taken a life of their own. At the collegiate level, fans had already noticed Nedoroscik as the only sporting glasses on the gymnastics stage. So it wasn’t uncommon to see signs such as, “fear the specs.” on the stands.

After Stephen Nedoroscik’s stellar performance at the Olympics, those signs turned into viral internet memes. Yet amidst the popularity and Clark Kent comparisons, Stephen Nedoroscik’s essential ritual took the back seat. Besides excelling on the pommel horse, the Worcester, Massachusetts, resident also excels in solving Rubik’s cubes.

In fact, Nedoroscik can solve one in seconds and does so constantly before every major contest. “I probably solved it about 100 times, maybe even more than that… It’s a way for me to kill time and is also a stress reliever as well,” the gymnast told Teen Vogue shortly after his pommel horse success in Paris.

So while the glasses bring him luck, the Rubik’s cube puts him in the zone. And now that the former world champion has earned two Olympic gold medals wearing his glasses, it’s safe to say that they’re here to stay for the rest of his career.