"I was a total prankster...my 4y/o self climbed 15 ft rope"- Stephen Nedoroscik makes admission as he recalls incident that led him to gymnastics

Two-time Olympic bronze medallist Stephen Nedoroscik recently shared his childhood journey of how he got started in gymnastics. The 26-year-old made history at the Paris Olympics with his performances.

Nedoroscik won the 2021 pommel horse gold medal at the World Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan. He also won a gold medal at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile. The pommel horse specialist recently appeared on an episode of “Sherri” with Sherri Shepherd and revealed his childhood journey of getting started in gymnastics.

“So when I was real young, I would climb up door frames, I'd scare the babysitters. I was a total prankster back then and my mom's ‘monkey boy’. So she puts me into this pre-school gym and my 4-year-old self climbed a 15 ft rope and the coach that was there goes ‘Hey you got to get down from there’ and I just let go. At four years old, they don't tell you how to climb down it. But we thought we'd get in trouble with this gym and everything. The next day they call us and my dad's like, ‘Oh we're getting banned from this place’. They invited me to join the gymnastics team and that's how I started the sport,” he shared. [16:13]

Nedoroscik started gymnastics from a very young age and he showed promise to rise through the ranks and make the US team. On the back of his successful Olympic campaign in Paris, the Massachusetts native shared his thoughts on his unforgettable experience.

---

Stephen Nedoroscik shared his elated joy after winning Olympic medals

Stephen Nedoroscik at The Olympic Games-Paris 2024 - Source: Getty

Stephen Nedoroscik, who won two bronze medals at the Paris Olympics last year, spoke about his surreal experience afterwards. In an interview with USA Today, he said:

“It is really awesome to see that people are appreciating me as a person. Kind of cool, to be kind of like that nerdy guy that's out here representing Team USA at the Olympic Games. It's an awesome feeling. And it's so weird because like, after a long day training last week, I would come back and like go to my typical doom scroll that I do at night. And I literally saw videos of me and I was like, 'What is happening right now?'

"I definitely liked the Steve song, one where it just kept cutting to like my jacked teammates going crazy, and then it just like pans over to me, making, like a goofy face or like sleeping or something throughout the meet. So, that one was really funny.”

Stephen Nedoroscik started gymnastics on all apparatus and started specializing in pommel horse during his high school. He also won the Junior Olympic national title on the pommel horse. During his collegiate period he represented the Penn State Nittany Lions.