Stephen Nedoroscik Is 'Blind' in Bright Light and 'Scared' to Drive. How the Pommel Horse Hero Competes (Exclusive)

Stephen Nedoroscik remembers how hard it was to be a kid who didn’t know how to play ball with his friends.

Diagnosed with a double eye condition at birth, the Team USA Olympic gymnast has always had trouble judging distances and seeing in bright light. “In sunlight, trying to catch a ball with no depth perception, you can imagine how difficult it would be,” he tells PEOPLE.

Instead, the 26-year-old turned his attention indoors — to gaming, mastering the Rubik’s Cube (he can solve one in 15 seconds) and gymnastics. After years of dedication to the sport, he won two medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics. “I never thought my eye disease would stop me,” she says of living with strabismus and colobomas.

Strabismus is a disorder in which the eyes do not align, which can cause three-dimensional and blurred vision, according to the Cleveland Clinic. A coloboma is an area of ​​missing tissue that can cause vision loss, poor vision and sensitivity to light, according to the medical center.

Stephen Nedoroscik Says He ‘Manifested’ His Nickname ‘The Guy With The Pommel Horse’ Ahead Of The Olympics (Exclusive)

When Nedoroscik started going to the gym at the age of 4, his limited vision made it difficult to perform on the vault and high bar. “I would miss the bar,” he recalls. He eventually gravitated to the pommel horse, where “everything is in my hands.”

He learned to cope with the event without his nearsighted corrective lenses. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, he won bronze and inspired the “Clark Kent/Superman” meme for his transformation with and without glasses. “It’s just the coolest thing ever,” he says of going viral. “I just finished my team final and got on the phone to hundreds of thousands of people talking about me and my eye condition.”

Stephen Nedoroscik closes his eyes moments before taking the stage on pommel horse at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

NBC

And while he is proud of his success, he is equally proud to be a role model for others in similar circumstances. While at the Olympics, Nedoroscik met a young man who also had coloboma and was nervous about entering the sport. However, after seeing a gymnast win at the Olympics, he asked his mom if he could join soccer — with Nedoroscic’s encouragement.

“I said, ‘Dude, you can do anything. Just believe in yourself and enjoy life, man. You got it,” he says. “I love this sport, but being able to give people motivation means a lot to me in the world.”

Tess McCracken and Stephen Nedoroscik arrive at the 76th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on September 15, 2024.

Chris Chew/Shutterstock

Nedoroscik learned how to manage life with cross vision — even eye surgery at age 8 didn’t solve the problem. During his childhood, he wore glasses that darken in the sun.

But with his “large pupils” due to coloboma, he is still easily blinded by light and does not drive. When he walks outside, Nedoroscik – who lives in Sarasota, Fla., with his girlfriend of eight years, Tess McCracken, 26 – opens his eyes for just a “millisecond” before closing them. “That’s how I manage.”

And yet he managed on the dance floor, placing among the top four of this season Dancing with the stars.

The gymnast describes how he dealt with the show’s unique challenges — from the bright lights to the fear of missing his partner Rylee Arnold’s hand when he reached for it — by believing in his abilities and “listening [his] body.”

“At the end of training these dances, I didn’t miss her hand at all because I knew where it would be and I had the confidence to go and reach for it,” he says.

Stephen Nedoroscik and Rylee Arnold perform in the ‘Dancing with the Stars’ semifinals on November 19, 2024.

Eric McCandless/Disney

Rylee Arnold and boyfriend Walker Lyons have the ‘best double date’ with her DWTS Partner Stephen Nedoroscik and his girlfriend

When Nedoroscik uprooted his life in September to move to Los Angeles to perform, he brought his girlfriend (and their cat, Kyusha) with him. For three months, the couple had made the city “home,” and McCracken had become increasingly impressed with her boyfriend’s dancing abilities, especially since she had convinced him to join the show in the first place. “She’s the best I can have on my side,” he says.

The two are now preparing to be separated for the longest time yet as Nedoroscik embarks on a 68-city DWTS tour starting in January as co-host.

The DWTS the adventure “was such a joy,” he says — but it was just the beginning for the Olympic medalist. “I’m thinking about new things I want to do.”

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Source: HIS Education