BRADENTON, Fla. — Stephen Nedoroscik was not a household name going into the summer Olympics in Paris.

But he became a hero overnight and has captured two bronze medals as the internet has dubbed him the "pommel horse guy" and "Clark Kent" because of the glasses he takes off before competing.

Nedoroscik trains in the Bay area and shared his journey with Spectrum Sports 360 before he left for the Games.

He said his love for gymnastics began at an early age.

"I started gymnastics when I was 4-and-a-half," he said. "It didn’t take long for that Olympic dream to blossom. A lot of role models, a lot of people I looked up to that I wanted to be in their shoes one day. 

But he later realized his path to get there may look a little different.

He won the Junior Olympic national title in 2015 on the pommel horse. By the time he got to college at Penn State, he made that his focus. 

"When I went to college, I won NCAA’s my freshman year and sophomore year and said, 'You know what? Specialists don’t really get on the national team, but I’m making a pretty good argument for myself,'" he said. "And pretty soon, I did make that as well." 

U.S. men's gymnastics switched up their strategy for this Olympic Games.

Rather than assign all five spots to "all-around gymnasts," the U.S. gave one spot on the team to Nedoroscik.

The pommel horse is a notoriously difficult apparatus and a weak spot for many teams.

"It takes 10 years to get to the point where you can just do a perfect circle," Nedoroscik said. "And, you know, not a lot of people can get to that point because it’s an extremely difficult event."

"This is kind of like the women’s balance beam where (if) you’re off by a millimeter, you’re on the ground," he added. "Luckily for me, it was something that came almost naturally, and I really just liked the grind."

During the team competition, Nedoroscik executed flawlessly, helping the U.S. men's team win a medal for the first time in 16 years.

Nedoroscik moved to Bradenton to train with EVO Gymnastics in 2023, where he trains alongside national teammates including two-time Olympian Brody Malone.

"An opportunity came around here at EVO Gymnastics where I could train with a couple of my national team friends, and become actual teammates with them," he said. "And it was kind of an opportunity that I couldn’t turn down.

"The coaching staff that we have has really helped me grow as a person and an athlete, and it’s gotten me where I am right now."