2x Olympics medalist gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik has never let his eye condition be a limitation. Moreover, he’s never had to forego his passion for gymnastics because of it, and that’s the best part. Even today, be it dance or any activity beyond his comfort zone, he hardly caves in due thinking—I can’t do it. In fact, he adopted this attitude since he was a little kid who just loved playing different sports.

In the Lightweights podcast with Joe Vulpis, the 25-year-old answered a fan question, which catered to his eye condition, how it affects him, and how he’s managed to overcome it. He explained, “Yeah, so my eye condition’s generally just bad vision.” Struggling with 2 rare eye diseases—coloboma and strabismus—Stephen Nedoroscik confesses having no depth perception and hypersensitivity to light.

However, the participant in the Dancing With The Stars season 33 never let these diseases obstruct his way of life. He says, “I’ve never let them [eye conditions] really affect my life, especially in gymnastics, with what I do. You know, it’s a lot easier to deal with those things.” In fact, the American gymnast knows that if he had been in a sport other than gymnastics, navigating the same would have been a tall order.

Stephen Nedoroscik cites how sports like baseball and basketball require depth perception or things that are outside. But nothing was ever impossible. He remembers how he used to manage playing them as a child: “But you know, even growing up playing these games, like it was something that I just pushed through.” Whether he would have managed them as a professional athlete remains doubtful. But, we know how, Stephen Nedoroscik never restricted the kind of games he played as a child due to his vision problems. In fact, wearing the glasses and removing them before his routine has earned him a new name.

The internet was quick to spot the similarity. Remove the glasses and do something heroic. That is exactly what Clark Kent does while removing his glasses to turn into Superman. So Stephen became the ‘Clark Kent of gymnastics’. Even USA Gymnastics called him ‘Super Steve’. Stephen enjoys these, but it has a bigger meaning to him. “I think they’re awesome. I’m representing people that wear glasses well,” Stephen had said on a Today show on July 30. Indeed, he is. Eye doctors agree with that.

“I’ve never seen anything like this with the Olympiad. I think it gives children a lot of hope,” Dr. Dean Cestari, director of adult strabismus at Mass Eye and Ear, a member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, said to Today. Stephen is already doing that. On July 30, USA Gymnastics posted a picture of Stephen with a young fan who has the same eye condition. “really, really special moment,” it wrote. So exactly how difficult it is with the two eye conditions Stephen has?

In Strabismus or crossed eyes, as it is commonly called, the eyes to not line up properly and point in different directions. “It’s incredibly bothersome. They see two separate images and they’re not sure which is the correct image,” Cestari explained. He is excited that Stephen’s condition is bringing the eye condition to notice because as the doctor pointed out, many people did not even know that it can be successfully treated in adulthood. But the other eye problem Stephen has is not curable.

Coloboma is a genetic disease that happens when some of the tissue that makes up the eye is missing at birth. Nedoroscik has explained living with coloboma on TikTok, stating that he’s photophobic, or light-sensitive. Apart from that, it includes vision loss and inability to see a specific location, such as the upper part of the field of vision. Notably, Stephen is not the only Olympic athlete with impaired vision who are mastering their sport.

Irish swimmer Daniel Wiffen ditched his glasses before clinching the gold in the 800m freestyle. Gymnast Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, who won gold in the vault individual finals during the 2020 Tokyo Games and gold in the floor exercise in Paris, has said she cannot see the apparatus that she is hurtling toward at full speed. Meanwhile, US national team soccer player Becky Sauerbrunn gave Stephen a shoutout, sharing her experiences playing without corrective lenses as she said that she “could tell who a person was by their running gait.” Notably, Stephen also talks about the same thing: the feel or the intuition that he relies on while performing.

Stephen Nedoroscik’s mind fulfills the lack of vision

Often seen as someone who snoozes right before the event, Stephen Nedoroscik is actually mentally practicing his moves and calming his mind. After that, it’s all about the feel. “When I go up on the pommel horse, it’s all about feeling the equipment; I don’t even really see when I’m doing my gymnastics. It’s all in the hands — I can feel everything,” he told Today. Even on the lightweight podcast, he says all of gymnastics just came very naturally to him. And with his blurred vision, it is all about training his mind.

Often referred to as a “sleeper agent” by some, Stephen was seen closing his eyes and picturing his routine while waiting on the sidelines during the team finals for his turn to compete. He was also spotted doing the same before the Olympic qualifications, a routine that helped secure his spot on the 2024 team.

It’s a matter of both visualizing the moves and feeling the moves, Stephen had told CNN. “I’m literally walking through the motions, firing the same muscles, because I know exactly how it feels every time,” he explained. With all that, Stephen Overcame the difficulties, because as he puts it, he has found a connection to gymnastics.

He says, “Anything that might have been affected by my vision, I was kind of able to move aside from that because of how much fun I was having.” Well, every time he actually starts having fun, it feels like his eye conditions have as though ceased to exist. He just gets so good at it! Say, dancing.

When he joined Dancing With The Stars 2024, he was admittedly nervous. Used to work with his ‘upper body’ the most, he was skeptical about his legs matching up the needed level of skill. Everything was brand new to him, and he was worried about messing it up. But you look at his scores, and you’ll know how his skills symbolize water perfectly taking the shape of a container—give him anything and he’d excel.

Stephen’s DWTS scores also show a constant progression, from 21, 22, 30, and then 32. Do you think he’s still affected by his eye condition? Or no? Share your thoughts with us!