Gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik Is the Clark Kent of the 2024 Olympics
"I shift my world viewpoint from one eye to the other. Like one camera to another 2 inches away."
Published July 29 2024, 3:06 p.m. ET
The 2024 U.S. Olympics team has a new competitor on the men's gymnastics team. Before joining the national team, Massachusetts native Stephen Nedoroscik competed with Penn State and EVO Gymnastics, taking home two first-place prizes in the FIG World Cup.
In his first performance as a member of the U.S. team, Stephen held the highest single score for any American gymnastics routine, with the pommel horse being his specialty.
He's definitely one to watch at the Olympics this year — and TikTok users have noticed it. In the comments of his performance on the pommel horse, users are drawing comparisons between him and Clark Kent (and other be-speckled heroes, noting how he takes off his ever-present glasses before performing. Though he's a master in gymnastics circles, he's openly talked about his poor eyesight before the games.
Stephen Nedoroscik has talked about his eyesight before.
Years before qualifying for the 2024 Olympics, Stephen took to TikTok to ask for suggestions as to how to get medical help for his eyesight. He has a strabismus, which means that he is cross-eyed. One eye always faces inward while the other focuses on something, though in Stephen's case, he can alternate which eye is the dominant eye.
He posted a TikTok video in August 2022 detailing his condition, showing how he can quickly switch between which of his two eyes is his dominant eye. In the video, he admitted he was looking for help finding a doctor to help him with it, or if anyone else on the internet had a similar condition so he would know where to look.
According to the comments, there are various surgeries that can help aid in this, with many reporting that after seeking the procedures, they haven't had subsequent issues.
"I made this video to see if anybody can switch their dominant eye on command like I can," he commented on the original video years later. "I sift my world viewpoint from one eye to the other. Like one camera to another 2inch away."
Though that video was posted almost two years ago, he has not provided an update on if he was able to find a doctor to consult about the condition.
Stephen also has coloboma, which is likely why he wears glasses.
Though Stephen has not gone into further detail about his eyesight online, the only time he seems to be without his glasses in public is when he's competing. In his original video about his eyes, he tagged it with #coloboma, which is a condition in which part of the tissue that makes up the eye is missing. When this happens, it often looks like the pupil is bleeding into the iris.
People with this condition will often deal with reduced vision, and this is likely part of why Stephen wears glasses. The condition usually happens at birth, though there is little to do to rectify the reduction in the person's vision.
Obviously, Stephen's eyesight isn't an issue when he competes in the Olympics, as he has the highest pommel horse difficulty of everyone competing on the U.S. men's gymnastics team (and scored an impressive 15.2).
