A year after fame found him in Paris, Stephen Nedoroscik, aka 'Pommel Horse Guy,' is back for more

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The glasses haven't gone anywhere. And they aren't going anywhere. The same goes for Stephen Nedoroscik's hair, which remains a bit of a floppy, curly brown mess.

Nor, insists the gymnast who became forever known as “Pommel Horse Guy” after winning a pair of bronze medals in Paris, has his devotion to the discipline that made him one of the breakout stars of the 2024 Olympics faded in the least.

While Nedoroscik leaned into the fame, most notably a long run on “Dancing With the Stars” last fall, followed immediately by a stint co-hosting the show's national tour, he never once considered putting away his grips for good and trying to go Hollywood full-time.

Sorry, that was never the point of all this.

Three months ago, Nedoroscik walked back through the doors of EVO Gymnastics in Florida and quietly went back to work. And when the U.S. Championships begin on Thursday night, he'll hop onto the event that, at 26, he remains in some ways obsessed with after all these years and begin again.

“At the end of the day, I am a gymnast and I blew up for being a gymnast,” Nedoroscik said. “And I have sort of a mindset where I don’t really want to be famous. I get, like, anxiety. So it’s like I kind of accept the fact that having this moment was amazing, but eventually that wave will end.”

In a way, Nedoroscik hopped off before he had a chance to be pushed. He's well aware of the tropes of all the teen movies where the main character starts off as an outcast of sorts, then one flash of talent, one splash of popularity, and one makeover montage later, they emerge as a different person.

He had no interest in sticking to that script, though the lure is certainly intoxicating.

When he drilled his dismount at Bercy Arena during the men's team final last July to clinch the biggest international medal by the U.S. men's gymnastics program since the 2008 Olympics, he didn't think it would lead to a spot on “The Tonight Show,” with host Jimmy Fallon rapping a song on how to spell his name.

The only contestant in “Dancing With the Stars” two-decade run to incorporate a pommel horse into a dance routine didn't imagine being a fixture on national television for two months either. Yet that happened too. Quickly followed by weeks crisscrossing the country as one of the faces of the show's annual tour.

While he appreciated the support, the messages to his Instagram account that cut through the noise the most weren't the ones talking about the way he navigated a ballroom floor, but from mothers who saw Nedoroscik and his American teammates triumph in Paris and decided it was time to sign their sons up for a sport that always seems to be fighting for its survival.

“Like that's what it’s all about, honestly, because this is a great sport,” he said. “And I think it’s the best sport, especially for hyper kids like I was.”

That almost relentless energy hasn't gone anywhere.

Sharing a stage with Olympic teammates on Wednesday afternoon, Nedoroscik leaned over to Brody Malone and asked how his hair looked. When Malone responded “disgusting" in the kind of good-naturedly sarcastic tone that has been the love language of guys everywhere for eons, Nedoroscik's laugh echoed throughout the room.

It's one of the many reasons Nedoroscik is happy to be back to what passes for his normal. He understands competing just three months after returning to training might be asking a bit much of his body. The early weeks in the gym were humbling and eye-opening. Yet interspersed with the aches and pains were the occasional reminders that yeah, he's still pretty good at this.

How good? Well, that's one of the reasons the Worcester, Massachusetts, native is already pointing toward the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. There's a chance his best gymnastics might still be ahead of him.

“I love to just push myself as far as I can go and I love to ride this wave, like right on the edge of possibility and like, ‘Am I gonna just die out there?’" he said. “But I do it for the thrill and I do it for the love of the sport, so I want to keep going.”

While keeping it real at the same time. Asked how he stayed grounded as his profile soared, he shrugged. While his number of followerson social media has swelled to over a million, his head remains in very much the same place.

“I do think it is sort of my inherent nature to just stick true to myself,” he said. “I don’t really try to put up a fake face in any situation that I’m in and I think so long as I do that, I am not going to change.”

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

FILE - Stephen Nedoroscik, of United States, competes on the pommel horse during a men's artistic gymnastics qualification round at the 2024 Summer Olympics, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, File)

FILE - Stephen Nedoroscik arrives at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, Sept. 15, 2024. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Stephen Nedoroscik, of the United States, celebrates after winning the bronze medal during the men's artistic gymnastics individual pommel finals at Bercy Arena at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Aug. 3, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, File)

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A group of mostly Democratic U.S. senators sent a letter Thursday to the U.S. Postal Service, voicing concern that mail processing changes could affect postmark dates for mail-in ballots during an election year that will determine control of Congress.

Updated agency policy says postmarks might not indicate the first day the Postal Service received the mail but rather the day it was handled in one of its processing centers. Those centers are increasingly likely to be further away from certain communities because of recent USPS consolidations, which could further delay postmarks, the 16 senators wrote.

“Postmark delays are especially problematic in states that vote entirely or largely by mail,” they wrote to Postmaster General David Steiner, noting that many states use postmark dates to determine whether a mail ballot can be counted. “These changes will only increase the likelihood of voter disenfranchisement.”

The consequences could be particularly acute in rural areas where mail has to travel farther to reach regional processing centers, they added.

“In theory, a rural voter could submit their ballot in time according to their state law, but due to the changes you are implementing, their legally-cast ballot would not be counted as it sits in a local post office,” they wrote. “As we enter a year with many local and federal elections, the risk of disrupting this vital democratic process demands your attention and action.”

The Postal Service has received the letter and will respond directly to those who sent it, spokesperson Martha Johnson said.

The agency addresses the issue on its website.

“While we are not changing our postmarking practices, we have made adjustments to our transportation operations that will result in some mailpieces not arriving at our originating processing facilities on the same day that they are mailed,” its website says. “This means that the date on the postmarks applied at our processing facilities will not necessarily match the date on which the customer’s mailpiece was collected by a letter carrier or dropped off at a retail location.”

Johnson said the language in the final rule “does not change any existing postal operations or postmarking practices.” She added that the agency looked forward to “clarifying the senators' misunderstanding.”

“Our public filing was made to enhance public understanding of exactly what a postmark represents, its relationship to the date of mailing and when a postmark is applied in the process,” she said.

People dropping off mail at a post office can request that a postmark be applied manually, ensuring the postmark date matches the mailing date, the Postal Service's website says. Manual postmarks are free of charge.

The agency said the “lack of alignment” between the mailing date and postmark date will become more common as it implements its initiative to overhaul processing and transportation networks with an emphasis on regional hubs. The aim of the initiative is to cut costs for the agency, which has grappled with losses in the billions of dollars in recent years.

Under the plan, the Postal Service got rid of twice-daily mail dispatches from local post offices to regional processing centers. That means mail received after the only transfer truck leaves sits overnight until the next daily transfer, the senators wrote.

Election officials in states that rely heavily on voting by mail expressed concern with the change.

“Not being able to have faith that the Postal Service will mark ballots on the day they are submitted and mail them in a timely manner undermines vote-by-mail voting, in turn undermining California and other elections,” California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said in a statement.

She said her office will “amplify messaging to voters” who use mailed ballots that they must return their ballots early if they plan to use the post office.

Election officials in Washington state, where voting is done almost entirely by mail, are recommending that those who return their ballot within a week of Election Day do so at a drop box or voting center.

“Given the operational and logistical priorities recently set by the USPS, there is no guarantee that ballots returned via mail will be postmarked by the USPS the same day they are mailed,” the secretary of state's office said in a statement.

The senators urged Steiner to restore “timely postmarks” and fully stand up an election mail task force. The lawmakers who signed the letter represented California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Maine, Connecticut, New Jersey and Maryland. All are Democrats but one, an independent who typically aligns with the Democratic Party.

FILE - Employees sort vote-by-mail ballots from municipal elections on Election Day at the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections Office, Nov. 4, 2025, in Doral, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)