Tess McCracken said she didn’t need to give boyfriend Stephen Nedoroscik a pep talk before the Team USA gymnast nailed his pommel horse routine at the Paris Olympics on Monday.
The 25-year-old Nedoroscik helped Team USA secure bronze in the men’s artistic gymnastics team final — their first medal in 16 years — and earned the nickname “Mr. Pommel Horse.”
“I have never been more nervous watching Stephen compete than I was Monday night watching the men of Team USA vie for their bronze medal,” McCracken, his girlfriend of eight years, said in a recent interview with Impersonal Foul, adding she was “on edge” while in the stands at Bercy Arena.
“My heart rate gets very high just sitting there. It was at 120 beats per minute before they had even fully rotated to the final rotation for pommel horse and reached over 140 beats per minute while he was going.”
McCracken, who was a gymnast at Penn State, explained the couple didn’t talk much before he competed.
“Idid not give Stephen any words of wisdom or any pep talk really before the meet. He really just stays in his zone on meet days leading up to it,” she said.