Why Does Olympic Standout Stephen Nedoroscik Wear Glasses?

American gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik only competed on pommel horse at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and his skills earned him a bronze medal in the event and helped clinch the U.S. men's team an all-around bronze medal. During the men's gymnastics team event, Nedoroscik was the last competitor, and numerous camera shots showed him sitting with his eyes closed, his glasses resting on his face. When it was his turn, Nedoroscik removed his eyewear, prompting numerous references to Clark Kent and Superman.

Between Nedoroscik's pommel horse prowess and his sweet relationship story with his girlfriend, he became a fan favorite. It also had the added impact of spotlighting the medical reasons behind his glasses: strabismus and coloboma. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, strabismus is commonly known as "crossed eyes." It occurs when eye muscles aren't able to coordinate with each other, and depth perception can be affected. Since he's getting different inputs from each eye, Nedoroscik demonstrated on TikTok how he can rapidly change his dominant eye.

Coloboma, on the other hand, is a genetic eye condition involving "an area of missing tissue in your eye," according to the Cleveland Clinic. Since the missing portion can vary, there's a wide range of ways this condition can impact a person. Both Nedoroscik and his mom, Cheryl Nedoroscik, have this condition. "His pupils don't constrict. They stay dilated all the time, and he has a section of his iris that's completely missing," Cheryl informed Fox News. "It's just pupil all the way to the edge ... we're very, very sensitive to light."

Before Stephen Nedoroscik performed his medal-winning pommel horse routines, he removed his glasses. However, he wasn't amping up the Clark Kent/Superman vibes. "If I keep them on, they're gonna fly somewhere," the gymnast explained to "Today." "I don't even really see when I'm doing my gymnastics. It's all in the hands — I can feel everything." Like Nedoroscik, Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade also removes her glasses during events. 

Besides relying on sense of touch to place his hands, Nedoroscik concentrates on the overall sensation of his body moving through space. Once the routine begins, he can't stop the flow of movement, or he would fall off the horse. "When I'm doing a circle, what it feels like is I'm teeter tottering, my weight is going back and forth from one arm posting to the next," Nedoroscik informed WPSU. "It's a very precise amount of push."

Even though his glasses aren't needed for gymnastics, at previous competitions, Nedoroscik was known for wearing black-framed goggles that looked very similar. These were a present from Ben Cooperman, one of his Penn State University gymnastics teammates. While the lenses lacked a prescription to enhance Nedoroscik's sight, they did become emblematic of good fortune. After a winning performance the day the goggles made their debut, they became his to-go accessory for a long time. "I believe he actually forgot them when he won World Championships so now they're kind of retired," Cooperman revealed to The New York Times.

As evidenced by his August 2022 Tiktok video, Stephen Nedoroscik was outspoken about his eye conditions well before he became an Olympic champion. Now his fame has increased knowledge about strabismus and coloboma exponentially. In addition, Nedoroscik's athleticism is inspiring people around the world, including physicians treating patients with these conditions.

On the flip side, the Olympics were an opportunity for Nedoroscik to bond with a kid over their shared eye condition. "It was also my first time meeting someone outside my family that has that disease," Nedoroscik informed the Associated Press in August 2024. "That was so cool to see that. And, you know, he was just so happy." A series of Instagram photos from USA Gymnastics showed Nedoroscik and the boy smiling for a picture and chatting animatedly. Nedoroscik even gave him and his family pins as a gesture of friendship.

Although strabismus can be alleviated with surgery, success can vary. "He did have a surgery when he was younger, but it didn't work for him," Liz Gonzalez, one of Nedoroscik's childhood gymnastics trainers, explained to The New York Times. One fan who applauded Nedoroscik's Instagram post noted that her child had multiple surgeries for strabismus and that the procedure wasn't guaranteed to correct the condition. However, glasses can help with both coloboma and strabismus, and Nedoroscik's eyewear is now so iconic that an eyewear company offered free pairs of a similar black-framed design during the gymnast's final Olympic event.