PLANO, Texas — Whether it's "Ms. Pommel Horse" or "Stephen's girlfriend," Plano native Tess McCracken has amassed a few different nicknames in the past 48 hours.
McCracken's boyfriend Stephen Nedoroscik was vital in helping the U.S. Men's Gymnastics Team earn a bronze medal in the team competition at the Paris Olympics on Monday night -- the first medal the U.S. has won in that category since 2008.
Nedoroscik, now known online as the "Pommel Horse Guy", showed how much pride he takes in being an Olympic athlete on Monday. Despite his team having a comfortable lead from the fourth-place team heading into his event, the pommel specialist executed his routine with maximum effort, leaving no doubt that the U.S. would make its return to the podium.
Following the competition, Nedorscik became something of a social media darling. X users began posting about the gymnast, dubbing him the "Clark Kent of Pommel Horse."
Countless memes and posts were made about the newly decorated bronze-medalist.
In turn, his girlfriend McCracken gave the people what they wanted and began sharing more about her boyfriend online. In the wake of his big win, McCracken shared numerous pictures of Stephen and his orange cat, and even made sure to repost the funniest memes to her page.
"They love him," McCraken told WFAA. "People who didn't know about men's gymnastics yesterday are suddenly tweeting about my boyfriend and somehow I'm getting pulled into this and it's so much fun. It's so unexpected, but it's so wonderful to see it all coming across my feed."
McCracken's bio on X also now reads "Ms. Pommel Horse" and her username has been changed to @stephens_gf -- so it's safe to say she's fully embracing the attention and love that her boyfriend is getting from around the country.
She's even taking her support across social mediums, posting about how proud she is of Nedorscik on her Instagram page, too.
McCracken said she was wearing a Fitbit watch during Stephen's routine and it recorded her heart rate at 140 beats per minute while she was cheering him on.
"I was screaming so hard," McCracken explained. "I stood up and I was so lightheaded that I almost fainted."
McCracken has a firsthand understanding of just what a big deal Nedorscik's Monday performance was in the world of gymnastics. That's because he isn't the only gymnast in the relationship.
For 12 years, McCracken herself trained at the World Olympics Gymnastics Academy, which has locations in Plano and Frisco and produced North Texas-raised Olympic gymnasts including Carly Patterson, Nastia Liukin, Madison Kocian and this year's youngest Team USA member, Hezly Rivera.
She said she began taking classes after attending a birthday party at the gym. A couple of months later, her mother received a call from a coach saying Natasha Boyarskaya wanted to see Tess for Team gymnastics.
This was a big deal. Boyarskaya was Patterson's coach during her 2004 run to secure the first All-Around Gold medal for Team USA since Mary Lou Rutten in 1984.
"That's like if Michael Jordan called you and said, I want to teach your son how to play basketball," McCracken explained. "I was pulled on a team in October of 2004, worked my way up and was a WOGA gymnast for 12 years."
McCracken also competed in gymnastics while attending Penn State, which is not only where she met her boyfriend, but also where she competed at a high level herself, earning two balance beam titles and one uneven bars title. In addition to her athletic success, McCraken earned Academic All-Big Ten honors each year of her college career.
She explained that she and Stephen were placed in the same group during freshman-year athlete orientation and it wasn't long after that the couple made it official.
"We had some of the same quirks and found out that we were going to be in the same engineering design class," McCracken said. "On the first day, I had saved him a seat next to me so that I knew someone in class."
It's been eight years since they took that class together and their relationship continues to grow along with their accomplishments.
When McCracken graduated in 2020, her collegiate gymnastics career came to an end. In an Instagram post, though, she said it was just a goodbye for now -- and that she would someday be back to the sport to which she'd dedicated 16 years of her life.
Whenever that day comes, we expect Stephen to reciprocate all the love and support McCracken has shown to him during his run in Paris.
Also on WFAA.com:
