He wasn't even out with the rest of his Team USA teammates for most of the meet, but when it counted, Stephen Nedoroscik was there to lock in the men's gymnastics programs first Olympic medal in over a decade.
Nedoroscik is a pommel horse specialist — he doesn't compete in the other five gymnastic disciplines — so he was only needed for one moment in the Paris Olympics men’s team competition Monday. It happened that the Worcester, Massachusetts, native's moment on the floor was the U.S. team's last.
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Following solid performances from teammates Paul Juda and Brody Malone, Nedoroscik posted a 14.866, one of the best pommel horse scores of the day, and secured Team USA the bronze medal behind Japan and China.
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While the U.S. women's gymnastics team has dominated the sport in the last decade, this was the men's squad's first spot on the podium since 2008.
Another Massachusetts gymnast provided more points to Team USA's total of 257.793 — Frederick Richard earned cheers from a watch party back in Stoughton as he performed in four different events: floor, rings, parallel bars and horizontal bars.
"We're not surprised," Jillian MacDonald, Richard's third-grade teacher, said at the watch party. "We are incredibly proud, but not surprised at all."
"Watching him as this little kid, and just grow up into this young man that's really fulfilling his dream that he's always had, is pretty amazing," added his second-grade teacher, Sue McCabe.
"We kept saying, 'Oh, we're going to see him in the Olympics,' not knowing he's going to make it to the Olympics, but we just, I guess, manifested it, right?" said family friend Alexia Etienne.
"We've been giving it everything and today it all came together," Richard told NBC10 Boston after the win. "The universe, you know, it works in crazy ways."
While the rest of the squad kept the team in touching distance with the leaders, Nedoroscik kept warm in a separate gym area, and only came back out near the end of the meet.
An NBC analyst even compared him to legendary New England Patriot Adam Vinatieri, the kicker who just about everyone back in Massachusetts will know secured the team's first Super Bowl victory with a clutch field goal.
When he stuck the landing, Nedoroscik was surrounded by his jubilant teammates.
"Finishing that routine, landing it, knowing my team just went 18 for 18 and I was the last guy to go," he told NBC10 Boston, "I had a feeling we got that medal and they lifted me up, and that kind of confirmed that thought."
Next up for Nedoroscik? The pommel horse finals, while Richard qualified for the individual all-around finals.
