Stephen Nedoroscik has had some busy days after his historic Olympic outing. The ‘Pommel Horse Guy’ was expected to join Simone Biles and Co. on the Gold Over America Tour. However, taking another path, Nedoroscik decided to venture out into a completely uncharted territory. The Olympic bronze medalist signed up for ‘Dancing With The Stars’, a dancing reality show. Now, Nedoroscik was brand new to the world of dancing. Yet, taking up the challenge, he got lucky. 

The Olympian got a veteran of the show as his partner in Rylee Arnold. Riding on the immense support from Arnold, Nedoroscik slowly began to get comfortable in his dancing shoes. Starting off his journey with Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’, the Olympic champion kept getting better at his dancing game. Learning to carry high heels confidently, Nedoroscik pulled off a Superman-themed paso doble that almost broke the internet. As the season is nearing its end, the DWTS participants got themselves a much-earned break. 

This helped Nedoroscik to take some time out and reflect on what exactly went down in Paris. With the immense pressure of winning an Olympic medal and breaking a 16-year-old drought on their shoulders, Nedoroscik unearthed a lesser-known side of his teammates Paul Juda, Asher Hong, Frederick Richard, and Brody Malone.

In a candid conversation with the Boston Globe, Nedoroscik stated how much fun the US men’s gymnastics team had at the French capital. Recalling their time together, Nedoroscik stated, “We’re just a goofy group of dudes that are elite athletes at the Olympic stage… We would literally play charades throughout the Olympics to just keep the weight off of each other’s shoulders.” Nedoroscik further narrated a funny incident where he donned the role of a maths teacher and his teammates just played along as students. 

Summing up the tense situation, Nedoroscik stated that everybody knew how sensitive and serious the job at hand was. But on the contrary, taking up too much pressure could have been disastrous. The double bronze medalist continued, “It’s hysterical, but that’s the group of guys that we are, we take these serious situations head on, but at the same time, we’re smart enough to distract ourselves.”

Surely, the trick worked as things turned out to be just as was expected from the men’s gymnastics team. After all, while the likes of Simone Biles and Suni Lee were creating ripples, the men’s gymnastics team was suffering from a losing streak. The streak was so long that it turned into a curse, which, thankfully, was broken by the shining warriors in their gymnastics armor.

Stephen Nedoroscik and Co. break a 15-year-old curse

The men’s gymnastics team of the US last won an Olympic medal back in 2008. Since then, it was an endless charade of going into the Olympics and coming back home empty-handed. Thus, when the likes of Paul Juda, Stephen Nedoroscik, and Brody Malone took the flight to Paris, the weight of anticipation was extremely heavy. Going into the finals, the mainstay of their team was supposed to be Brody Malone. Unfortunately, things turned horribly long midway. 

Performing on the high bars, Malone suffered a couple of nasty falls to almost knock Team USA out of the medal contention. But then it was Stephen Nedoroscik who decided to take control of things just like he did while making the mood lighter in the locker room. The Clark Kent of gymnastics decided to rip off his disguise and emerge as Superman to take his team through. 

Brushing aside the setbacks, Stephen Nedoroscik mounted on the Pommel Horse and then weaved his magic. Clinching a whopping 14.866 for his team, the score was enough to secure the bronze medal for Team USA. Prior to this, the U.S. men’s gymnastics team won a bronze medal in the team final at the 2008 Beijing Olympics on August 12, 2008. Thus, breaking the almost 16-year-old jinx, the USA men’s gymnastics team got right back into the main scheme of things. Now, with all of them getting a hero’s welcome, it remains to be seen whether their dressing room tactics earn them more such prestigious accolades in the future or not.