How Two Massachusetts Natives Helped USA Achieve Olympic Gymnastics Glory

The United States went without a medal in men’s gymnastics in the past three Olympic Games, but that changed in Paris thanks to two Massachusetts natives.

Frederick Richard of Stoughton, Mass., and Stephen Nedoroscik of Worcester, Mass., both won bronze medals in the men’s team final on Monday. Team USA finished with a team score of 257.793 behind Japan, which took gold, and China, which took silver.

Richard delivered team-high scorer performances on the parallel bars, the horizontal bar and the floor. Nedoroscik came to Paris as a pommel horse specialist, and he needed to deliver a near-perfect performance to secure a medal for the United States. The 26-year-old Worcester Technical High School graduate did just that much to the delight of fans on social media who dubbed Nedoroscik “pommel horse guy” along with a flood of memes.

Team USA’s bronze medal in the team final was the first Olympic medal for the U.S. since Beijing in 2008.

“It’s sinking in, but it still feels pretty unreal,” Richard said, per The Boston Globe’s Tara Sullivan. “We’re going to be written in history. All of us. That’s crazy to think about. They used to have pictures in my gym of the past Olympic teams that medaled and I would look at that and think, ‘Man, what if I was one of those people one day?’

Richard and Nedoroscik will get another chance in the spotlight in Wednesday’s all-around final in a field of 24 gymnasts.