Gymnast-turned-meme Stephen Nedoroscik and his American teammates credit the United States college system for their Olympic success and the pommel horse bronze medallist has urged universities to keep alive their gymnastics programmes.
All five of the US men in Paris were current or former gymnasts in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) but the number of Division I programmes has fallen by nearly 95 per cent in recent decades to 12, compared with 62 for the women, because of budget cuts.
“The NCAA is critical (for me) to be in this moment,” the 25-year-old Nedoroscik, who helped the US men to win their first Olympic team medal in 16 years, told Reuters after the apparatus finals, adding a message for the universities back home.
“Men’s gymnastics is not going to cost you as much as you think," he said. "There's so much talent in this country that will never be able to reach its true potential because people are cutting programmes.”
The American’s zen-like behaviour during the team final as he awaited his only routine of the night created a fire storm on social media, but this was business as usual for Nedoroscik, who honed his competition approach during his time at Penn State University.
“We specifically had a meeting about treating this competition like an NCAA championship,” Brody Malone, who competed for Stanford University, told reporters after the Americans took bronze in the team final.
“Gymnastics is a pretty individual sport but the NCAA turns it into a team sport. We've all competed in that high pressure situation for a team. Having that experience really set us up to win this medal.”
The college route has also proved fruitful for the women as a record 14 of the 94 females entered in the gymnastics competition in Paris had NCAA ties, including the University of California Los Angeles’ Jordan Chiles, who took a bronze medal on floor exercise on Monday.
NCAA experience is not new for the US men as only one member among the 2016 and 2020 Olympic squads did not compete in college, and the 2024 crew know this trend must continue for Team USA to challenge for victory at the 2028 home Games in Los Angeles.
Team member Paul Juda, who represented the University of Michigan, offered an impassioned plea.
“Let's save men's gymnastics. Let's revive men's gymnastics. Let's bring USA gym to gold in LA,” he said.