If there were a gold medal bestowed at these Paris Olympics for ‘most viral athlete' there is a clear runaway winner — Stephen Nedoroscik, the nerdy, bespectacled pommel horse specialist and hero of the U.S. Men's Gymnastics team.
Make no mistake, there have been lots of heroes at the Paris Olympics thus far — Simone Biles‘ inspiring comeback, Alex Sedrick's clutch walk-off score to land the US women's rugby team the bronze medal, to name a few — but for some reason Nedoroscik stands above all others when it comes to the title of biggest internet sensation at these summer games.
It's therefore worth taking a few minutes (or at least longer than the ten seconds it takes Nedoroscik to solve a Rubik's Cube) to analyze how we got to this point, and reverse engineer — to borrow a term from Nedoroscik's college major, electrical engineering — just what makes this dude so popular.
For one, America loves a nerd-turned-unexpected hero. The comic book creators of Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, taught us that almost ninety years ago when their larger-than-life creation gave birth to the superhero phenomenon in pop culture and inspired countless imitators.
There's just something about a nerdy dude who takes off his glasses to go into full-blown hero-mode that resonates with people. So it's no surprise that social media quickly dubbed Nedoroscik ‘the Clark Kent of pommel horse,' ‘the Clark Kent of men's gymnastics,' ‘the Clark Kent of the Olympics', and last but not least (though certainly the laziest)… pommel horse guy.
Second, Americans also love nerds with swag — Steve Urkel turning into Stefan Urquelle, Napoleon Dynamite, McLovin — though once they develop too much swag (or riches), the appeal quickly fades (looking at you Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Jeff Zuckerberg).
Nedoroscik has just the right level of swag — that overly enthused, fist pumping celebration as he threw his arms to the sky was magically nerd-tastic.
As literary nerdy viral author John Green pointed out on his X/Twitter feed, “To truly understand Stephen Nedoroscik's nerd credentials, you need to know that he is in Paris for the Olympics and posting to his insta story about solving a rubik's cube in under 10 seconds.”
Third, we like our heroes to have some quirks. If Hollywood had to cook up a quirky best friend character in a Nancy Meyers rom-com, it would probably be a glasses-clad US men's gymnast who loves posting videos of himself solving Rubik's Cubes in under 10 seconds. And now we actually have that, IRL?!
Finally, there's so much buildup to the Olympics every year, fans — particularly online ones — like surprises. And seeing a goofy guy in big glasses have to sit around all night meditating on the sidelines as he waits for his one event he was sent to Paris for — and then to come through with a resounding routine, thus clinching the first medal (a bronze) for the US men's gymnastics team since 2008, is a pretty good eye-opener.
So enjoy all the memes, GIFs and internet attention while it lasts, Stephen Nedoroscik, because you check every box of breakout internet Olympic celebrity. At least until you get a big endorsement deal with Warby Parker and start dating a supermodel (because that would put you in Elon Musk territory, and no one wants that).
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