Stephen Nedoroscik has been likened to Clark Kent, so it's no surprise his longtime girlfriend, Tess McCracken, is now being called Lois Lane.
Nedoroscik visited TODAY on Aug. 14 after a whirlwind run at the 2024 Paris Olympics, in which he won two bronze medals — one in the men's pommel horse final, and another alongside his fellow members of Team USA in the men's team final.
And of course, McCracken made an appearance on the show as well as she supported her boyfriend. She was seen waving to the camera, blowing kisses and holding her hands in the shape of a heart.
"I just saw your Lois Lane over there in the corner, wearing that beautiful Olympics sweater," TODAY's Craig Melvin said on the plaza, as the camera panned over to McCracken, before asking what she and Nedoroscik's family think of his newfound fame.
"I mean, it's definitely different than what we're used to. It's a new normal at this point, but I'm loving it," Nedoroscik said. "I'm loving the attention of bringing to men's gymnastics and all my teammates. So I think it's a really good thing, and I'm excited to see where it brings me."
Later that morning, McCracken appeared on TODAY from inside Studio 1A. Craig called her Lois Lane again as the camera panned to her, with McCracken waving and forming a heart with her hands.
"Is she a pommel horser as well?" Craig asked.
"Oh, you know ... no," Nedoroscik said as they all laughed.
Nedoroscik, 25, captivated the country when he helped secure the American men's gymnastics team's first medal in 16 years with his expert handling of the pommel horse. Photos of his cool composure — eyes shut and spectacles on while resting on the sidelines before his event — went viral, prompting comparisons to Clark Kent.
Soon enough, viewers wanted to know about the girl who had captured his heart, and it wasn't long before the internet solved the mystery and found McCracken.
On Instagram, McCracken’s July 30 post featuring Nedoroscik raked in thousands of views within hours of being posted. Users cheered on the couple, asked if they were together, and called McCracken the “first lady of pommel horse.”
McCracken not only supports him from the sidelines but also balances her own impressive career as a project manager and former gymnast.
Speaking to TODAY.com, McCracken shared what makes their relationship work. Read on for what we learned.
Who Is Stephen Nedoroscik's girlfriend, Tess McCracken?
Stephen Nedoroscik’s girlfriend, Tess McCracken, is a 26-year-old retired gymnast. The couple lives together in Sarasota, Florida, where Nedoroscik currently trains and competes.
McCracken, a Pennsylvania State University graduate, works remotely as a project manager in cell and gene therapy for a biopharmaceutical contract research organization based in Pennsylvania.
The two met in college on orientation day
“We met on our first day at Penn State,” she explains. “He was a gymnast for the Penn State men’s team, and I was on the Penn State women’s gymnastics team, so we were in athlete orientation together.”
They were grouped together during orientation due because of the first letters in their last names.
“We recognized each other from the competition world but didn’t speak much until we were paired up for a personality questionnaire and later saw each other on the first day of classes,” McCracken recalls. “About a week later, we were together.”
Yes, he really gets in the zone
McCracken says she’s seen the memes on social media about her boyfriend serving Superman and ultimate chill vibes. She says they're pretty spot on.
“It used to be Tom Holland and Spider-Man. Now we’ve upgraded to Superman,” she says. “I love it. I think it’s so funny, especially with the glasses and the curly dark hair. I absolutely see it.”
As for how focused he appeared to be while waiting on the sidelines to execute his routine, McCracken says he really does get that focused.
“All I know is that he’s a lot calmer than I am. He is so in the zone,” she explains.
“He is just completely within himself (when competing) and, you know, won’t go to dinner with his parents, won’t go to dinner with me. He’s like, ‘No, I need to be all in. I need to be focusing. I cannot do anything other than this right now.’ And that has been him for at least the last six months, if not longer.”
“He’s so calm, I don’t even know if he gets nervous anymore,” she explains.
McCracken says it’s the exact opposite of how she would get during her days as a gymnast when she was anchoring her team’s beam squad. Still, she says, it was easier than watching her boyfriend head into a competition.
“At least when I was going, I knew what I was thinking.” she explains. “I knew what I could control. When I see him, I can’t help. I can’t do anything. And it just hurts me that I can’t be down there, I can’t help, and there’s nothing I can do.”
Nedoroscik and McCracken love a good game
“He is very, very into chess and watches a lot of chess videos and does a lot of chess strategy,” she explains. “He’s into both chess and plays a lot of Rocket League, and he’s ranked pretty well in those. That’s how he spends a lot of his time.”
“Together, we love watching on YouTube ‘Good Mythical Morning,’” she continues. “And we love watching that together while we’re eating dinner or just, you know, in the evenings.”
The couple is also really into the New York Times games.
“We play the Connections and do Wordle together. His greatest accomplishment is that he guessed the word ‘queue’ on the second guess and got it,” she adds.
The couple have a cat named Kyushu
McCracken shares that the two have a male orange tabby named Kyushu.
“He’s named after Kitakyushu, Japan, where he won his gold medal at the World Championships,” she says. “We hang out with him, and we have a screened-in patio that we all hang out in.”
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