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Stephen Nedoroscik’s meticulous attention to details and rituals do not stop with his pommel horse routine.

Outside the gym, the American athlete can be obsessive, too.

So when he again solved his Rubik’s Cube in under 10 seconds on Saturday ahead of the pommel horse final at the Paris Olympics, he knew it was a good omen. He knew he could deliver a performance that would earn him another medal.

“After I solved it under 10 seconds before four team finals, solving it again under 10 seconds for this competition or today, I was like, all right, we got this,” the 25-year-old said.

Earlier this week, the pommel horse specialist played a crucial role in helping the U.S. men earn bronze in the team final, sealing the program’s first Olympic medal in 16 years with a lights-out routine.

Nedoroscik was sensational again under the roof of the Bercy Arena, flying over handles and traveling at ease from one side of the pommel horse to the other.

It was a tight contest, and Nedoroscik lost to two-time world champion Rhys McClenaghan of Ireland and Nariman Kurbanov of Kazakhstan. McClenaghan won with a score of 15.533, with Nedoroscik capping his memorable stay in Paris with 15.300 points.

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While McClenaghan increased the difficulty of his routine, Nedoroscik tried some upgrades at training but finally opted against a change of plans. He also kept the same diet.

“We just continued to do the same ritual over and over again. I had six pieces of green apple in the morning with a chocolate muffin,” he said. “That was my breakfast. I just kept everything exactly the same.”

Specializing in a discipline that nobody knows outside gymnastics circles, the Worcester, Massachusetts, native who won two NCAA championships at Penn State, all of sudden has become a social media celebrity, with dozens of memes and pictures of him circulating in the virtual world.

Paris Olympics

• Algerian boxer Imane Khelif clinches a medal in women’s boxing after outcry fueled by gender misconceptions
• Simone Biles wins another gold, and Sha’Carri Richardson and Katie Ledecky also seek big wins today.
• Meanwhile, this millennia-old port city is hosting Olympic sailing.
• See AP’s top photos from the 2024 Paris Olympics.
• Check out the Olympic schedule of events and follow all of AP’s coverage of the Summer Games.
• Take a look at the AP’s Olympics medal tracker and list of athletes who won today.
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“It is just that unbelievable, the amount of people who are reaching out, following me. They were going crazy. I mean,” he said. “I thought they were hilarious. I’m glad that people are making memes of me. I think it’s so funny. I literally had to go and turn off my notifications yesterday because I needed to be able to lock in for this competition.”

His new fans have compared the bespectacled Nedoroscik to Superman’s alter ego Clark Kent for his ability to transform into a hero on the pommel horse.

“If someone had asked me what about I would eventually gain traction, I would have probably said it was my eyewear or more of my eyes, my diseases that I have,” he said. “You know, I do think I’m just a quirky guy, and I’m glad that people are enjoying my competition.”

Pommel horse is an apparatus the American men have historically struggled with, but Nedoroscik has loved it since childhood. He practiced on it for hours after his parents installed one in the backyard. In 2021, Nedoroscik became the first U.S. gymnast to win a world championship gold medal on pommel horse.

The “monotony” and rituals Nedoroscik enjoys so much, however, have been disturbed by the departure from the athletes village of some of his U.S. teammates who were already done with their own competitions.

“So it was definitely a little lonely in the village,” he said. “But to fill that time, I solved the Rubik’s Cube a couple hundred times and got myself another sub 10. So that’s about all I needed for this competition.”

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

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