All the years of effort — sweat, stress, success, injuries; security, no matter what else, to continue competing — it ended like this for Stephen Nedoroscik and four of his new fellow gymnasts from Team USA:
They sat behind the curtains on Saturday, June 29, waiting to hear the one thing that would change their lives forever. They were supposed to be Olympians in 2024.
Nedoroscik, a 25-year-old pommel horse specialist, initially tried not to get too crazy. He went almost as well as he could in his signature event. After that, the gymnasts had to remain in limbo for about 30 minutes on Saturday at the end of two days of qualification.
The rest was waiting.
“Stay in my zone,” thought Nedoroscik. He texted his girlfriend, Tess McCracken, and then suddenly the selection committee arrived, paper in hand, with their decision.
“Before I knew it, my name was called and it was just the best moment of my life,” an elated Nedoroscik told reporters afterward.
His reaction was understandable: “I stood up and said, ‘Shit – bad word’, and hugged all the guys who were mentioned before me. I didn’t cry, I’m not good at it. But maybe I will later when it really hits me.”
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Paul Juda, who joins Nedoroscik along with Fred Richard, Brody Malone and Asher Hong, recalled the moment like this: “I wish I could say I was calm, cool and collected. Maybe I was like that on the outside, but my heart was just pounding.”
And then.
“They called me by my first name, and as soon as I heard ‘Dad—’ for the second time, I immediately started crying,” Juda, 22, told reporters.
The five gymnasts who will represent Team USA at the Paris Olympics starting in July sounded variations on this note — overjoyed, eager, excited, perhaps ready to take a break in the next few weeks.
If not for this victory allback then it was still a lot.
“I’m really glad I wrote on my board — ‘become an Olympian,'” Judah said, bursting into tears. “I fell into a couple of other goals that I had written on the board and I started to wonder if I should delete the one that said Olympian because I guess it might not come true.”
“But I go home and put a big tick. And I’m glad that it went there, that I kept it there,” he said.
Stephen Nedoroscik prepares to compete on pommel horse on day three of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials on June 29.
Jamie Squire/Getty
Juda will be competing alongside another University of Michigan teammate, Richard, who remained seemingly unfazed during the qualifiers, during which he bested Malone, the reigning national champion.
“I think I was pretty cool inside,” Richard, 20, tells PEOPLE. “I mean… it’s just trusting the process.”
“It’s hard to enjoy things when you’re stressed,” he adds. “It’s easy to enjoy it when you’re just being grateful as much as possible and enjoying the moment.”
Judah sounds happy about what’s in store for both of them, saying, “We’re going to have a really good time. Fred pushes me every day and, intentionally or not, I always try to match what he’s doing, and he’s amazing.”
Richard’s refrain of “trust the process” was shared by some of his teammates. As was their determination – even their promise – to bring back the men’s gymnastics medals in Paris.
That would end a relatively dry spell for the USA men’s team since 2008, when the team last reached the podium in gymnastics. Only three Americans have won an individual medal during or since 2008; and no one is at the last Games in Tokyo, 2021.
“We will bring home the team medal,” Hong, 20, said Saturday after the trials ended. “That’s the goal. … all the time.”
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Richard, who appears as the face of the American gymnastics team, was more decisive.
“I knew that whatever team was selected was a deadly team, and I can say that now that I really see it — this medal, it’s like we shouldn’t just aim for a medal. We should be aiming for gold,” he said. “And we’re going to land on something. That’s how I feel.”
What has changed? In short, USA Gymnastics officials encourage their athletes through bonus points to increase the difficulty of their exercises in order to eventually raise their scores on the world stage where they have been surpassed by China, Japan and others.
It’s paid off: “The drive and desire of this whole team to build difficulty, to be competitive at the international level, has been incredible and has been fueled by the bonus system,” Malone, 24, tells PEOPLE.
“You have a bonus system — but you have to have guys behind it who have the drive and want to make that move,” he says, “and I’ve seen that in every single person on this team. So it was amazing.”
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Fred Richard competes on the parallel bars on day three of the 2024 US Olympic Gymnastics Trials on June 29.
Elsa/Getty
Brett McClure, a senior USA Gymnastics official, agrees. He just didn’t think it would pay off so quickly.
“That’s been the whole goal for the last three years, since Tokyo. sincerely [I] I didn’t think we could do it, it was like maybe this was going to be LA’s way for a change [in 2028] as far as actually increasing the difficulty and things like that,” he says. “And they did it in time for Paris, and now we’re getting ready to go there with a great team.”
The five – plus traveling alternates Shane Wiskus and Khoi Young – have about a month before Paris.
“Now we’re just putting our heads together and figuring out where we fit best in terms of our performance and what events we’re going to put on,” Malone says, noting that “everyone is super close.” (And he later said that one area they could all work on is the pommel horse event.)
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All new teammates will find their place, working together, they say.
“I think I can be a tough, consistent guy who – I have that calm, collected attitude, mentality and my gymnastics will show the same thing,” Richard told reporters. “And so if someone is nervous, I think they can come to me to lift their spirits.”
Said Nedoroscik: “I’m always the guy who kind of helps people get anchored in the competition. I really like cheering. I really like him to be stupid. I don’t like it when people get super serious.”
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Asher Hong competes on vault on day three of the 2024 USA Olympic Gymnastics Trials on June 29.
Jamie Squire/Getty
They will train, they will rest, they will celebrate.
“Believe in what you’re doing,” Nedoroscik said. “It works, everything will work out in the end.”
Rinse, repeat.
“Train, recover and have fun.” That’s how Hong plans to spend the next month, she tells PEOPLE.
“That’s all I can say … I’m focused on that team medal, and we’re going to go out there and represent our country.”
Richard, bouquet in hand – and a brand new pair of Nike trainers on his feet, both thanks to his win – looks ahead.
“It’s like a new mountain in my life,” he said, “and I’m ready to climb it.”
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Source: HIS Education