Tess McCracken said she didn’t need to offer her boyfriend, Steven Nedorosic, a pep talk before the Team U.S. gymnast flawlessly executed his pommel horse routine at the Paris Olympics on Monday.
The 25-year-old Nedorosic helped the U.S. team win the bronze medal in the men’s gymnastics team final, the team’s first medal in 16 years, earning him the nickname “Mr. Pommel Horse.”
“I’ve never been more nervous than I was on Monday night watching Steven compete and watching the Team USA athletes compete for the bronze medal,” McCracken, his partner of eight years, said in a recent interview. Impersonal foulShe added that she was “nervous” while in the stands at the Bercy Arena.
“Just sitting there really gets your heart rate up. Even before I fully rotated on the last pommel horse, my heart rate was 120 beats per minute, and it was over 140 beats per minute while I was rotating on the pommel horse.”
McCracken, a former gymnast at Penn State, explained that the couple didn’t talk much before the competition.
“I “I didn’t give Steven any advice or words of encouragement before the competition. He just stayed in his zone until the day of the competition,” she said.
“We haven’t even texted each other, actually. We’re just waiting for him to get into the mental state he needs to be in.”
“And then, like 20 minutes before the march started, he texted me saying, ‘OK, good luck.’ And I said, ‘good luck.’ And that’s it. That’s all he needs. He doesn’t need me to tell him he’s going to go out there and give it his all. He doesn’t need me to tell him to stay focused. He gets it.”
2024 Paris Olympics
A photo of Nedorosic sitting with his eyes closed while preparing to compete went viral this week and became a meme.
The Penn State graduate later explained on the “Today” show that he would go through his routine over and over in his head while doing the breathing exercises.
Nedorosic, a pommel horse specialist, was the final member of the U.S. team to compete on Monday, and performed a stunning slalom.
He earned 14.866 points to clinch the bronze medal for Team USA, two points ahead of Great Britain. Before Nedorosic’s performance, the Americans were in seventh place.
McCracken said she and Nedorosic celebrated with the U.S. team and their families at a private gathering after the competition.
“We were lucky that the U.S. organizers had planned ahead and booked a restaurant across from the stadium after the men’s team won the bronze medal,” she said.
“We were spread out all over the arena, so it was really nice to have the whole family go somewhere after the game and celebrate.
“As soon as the players were released from the arena they came over for dinner, they can’t leave the field so it was great for us to get here and meet him for the first time. [Olympic] The village and the arena were really beautiful.”
McCracken is not staying with Nedorosic in Paris because spouses of athletes are not allowed to travel to the Olympic Village.
“People keep asking me if I’m going with him, but I think ‘with’ is a bit of an exaggeration. I’m going to Paris to see him, and he’s part of the US delegation,” she said.
“He was there with all the athletes and organisers and I had to come here by myself, but I definitely didn’t want to miss it.”
Nedorosik, from Worcester, Massachusetts, won the 2024 U.S. Pommel Horse Championships.
He won two national titles on the pommel horse and was a four-time All-American at Penn State.
McCracken said she plans to be out on the field to cheer on Nedorosic as he competes for gold in Saturday’s event final.
