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The U.S. men climbed from fifth place in qualifying to take the bronze medal in the men’s team gymnastics final on Monday, a milestone for the program that had not won a medal at the Olympics since 2008.

Stephen Nedoroscik is a big reason why. The vaulting horse specialist took his turn with USA in the bronze medal position in the team’s final rotation of the competition. He delivered a nearly flawless routine that secured USA’s highest score on the apparatus and secured the bronze for them.

Nedoroscik recounted the moment while rewatching his routine with NBC’s Mike Tirico, along with teammates Brody Malone, Asher Hong, Paul Juda and Frederick Richard.

That routine and that interview helped Nedoroscik become an American hero at the Paris Olympics.

The pommel horse is Stephen Nedoroscik’s thing

Nedoroscik didn’t make Team USA because of his skills on the vault, rings, parallel bar, high bar, or floor exercise. He was selected because he is one of the best in the world at one thing: performing on the pommel horse.

Nedoroscik won two NCAA championships and a silver medal on the pommel horse while competing at Penn State. He won a gold medal for Team USA in the event at the 2021 world championships. His score of 14.866 on Tuesday was the second-best of the day in the team final behind Max Whitlock of Great Britain.

It was the only event he competed in. He waited the entire competition for his turn in the final U.S. rotation. There he performed. He gets a chance to do that again in the pommel horse final, after finishing second in qualifying with a score of 15.200.

Stephen Nedoroscik is good at Rubik’s Cube

Really very good.

Nedoroscik relaxes by solving Rubik’s Cubes. Like any Rubik’s Cube savant, for Nedoroscik it’s not so much a question of whether he solves it, but how long he takes. He’s very fast.

Before Monday’s gymnastics final, Nedoroscik posted an image on Instagram of a Rubik’s Cube next to a tablet with a time on it: 9.321 seconds.

“Good omen,” Nedoroscik wrote.

That is indeed a good omen.

According to his TikTok bio, Nedoroscik’s personal best time at Rubik’s Cube is 8.664 seconds. In case you were wondering.

Nedoroscik has strabismus

Nedoroscik quickly became famous on Monday, not only for his gymnastics routine, but also for his striking look with fashionable glasses.

He revealed a possible reason for those glasses on Tiktok. He has strabismus, which is basically medical terminology for squinting. He put out a call to doctors on Tiktok asking for information about the diagnosis and demonstrated his experience with the condition for his followers.

It is not clear whether he received satisfactory responses.

The squint doesn’t seem to bother him too much. It certainly didn’t bother him on Monday when he competed without glasses or contact lenses. But he waved his glasses proudly on the podium and during celebrations with his teammates.

Nedoroscik’s selection for Team USA was criticized

To many gymnastics observers, Nedoroscik did not belong on the U.S. Olympic team.

To be honest, a one-event specialist in a six-event competition with five-man teams doesn’t seem like the best choice at first glance. Nedoroscik has heard the criticism of the decision.

“I was fully aware of it,” Nedoroscik told the Washington Post of the criticism. “I really wanted to make the Olympic team, and I knew there would be a backlash. I’m doing one event compared to these guys who are phenomenal all-arounders. And I’m a phenomenal horseman. But it’s hard to fit into a team of five.”

But Nedoroscik’s strength is a relative weakness for the rest of Team USA. In a competition where Nedoroscik didn’t have to compete in any of his weaker events, the math worked. Nedoroscik’s pommel horse score had the potential to propel the U.S. men to the podium. It was a situation where his teammates had to do their job consistently on the other events.

They’ve all met the moment and now have the hardware to show for it. And on Saturday, Nedoroscik is a favorite to pick up additional hardware in the pommel horse final.