The Paris Olympics have gifted the internet with a number of fan-favorite athletes, as both new and familiar faces captivate audiences around the world.
As the games progress, fans contribute to a growing list of viral moments that celebrate the Olympics’ predisposition for fantastic comeback stories, heroic displays of talent and, sometimes, just the right amount of humor.
See below for The Hollywood Reporter‘s overview of Paris 2024’s breakout viral stars.
Stephen Nedoroscik: The “Clark Kent” of Men’s Pommel Horse
Nedoroscik headed to Paris as a specialist for the USA men’s gymnastics team, there to compete in just one event: pommel horse. Just before his big moment came in the team all-around final, cameras caught Nedoroscik, bespectacled in a pair of glasses, seemingly taking a quick nap on the sideline. The athlete then ditched the eyewear and performed a near-perfect routine that clinched a bronze medal for Team USA, the sport’s first in 16 years. Images of Nedoroscik have subsequently gone viral, and many celebrated his zenned-out behavior, comparing him to Superman’s Clark Kent.
“Obsessed with this guy on the US men’s gymnastics team who’s only job is pommel horse, so he just sits there until he’s activated like a sleeper agent, whips off his glasses like Clark Kent,” one user on X, formerly Twitter, wrote.
Nedoroscik, for his part, told Today he loves the memes. “I’m representing people who wear glasses well,” he said. He also noted that shedding the glasses really does make him quite blind. “I don’t even really see when I’m doing my gymnastics,” he said. “It’s all in the hands. I can feel everything.”
Simone Biles: Gold Medal-Level Redemption
After struggling with mental blocks and dropping from competition at the Tokyo 2020 games (held in 2021 due to COVID-19), Biles headed to Paris with all eyes turned to her comeback. On Tuesday, she shepherded the women’s team to gold in the all-around final, and the internet soon went crazy for her historic trajectory.
“Simone Biles is not a generational talent,” one fan wrote on X. “She’s so good that they had to create a new difficulty level to score her. She has multiple moves named after her. She’s not a generational talent. She’s the best to have ever existed. And we’re all blessed to be able to witness it.”
Offline, though, Biles has been clear that this Olympics was her most personal yet. Netflix’s Simone Biles: Rising director Katie Walsh previously told The Hollywood Reporter that Biles was headed to Paris as “a mature woman who knows what she wants and is really doing this for herself in a way that you don’t always see, especially in gymnastics. It would be wonderful for her to win all the gold medals, but I think the showing up and putting herself out there has been the greatest achievement.”
Ilona Maher, Team USA’s Rugby Star On and Off the Field
Maher first rose to TikTok fame during the Tokyo games for her candid videos about life in the athlete’s village. She surpassed one million followers shortly after, and has since entertained fans with educational content about women’s rugby, female athletes and her journey with body positivity. Maher and her team won the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, the first time Team USA ever landed on the women’s rugby sevens podium.
“I’m a female athlete in a sport that’s not very big, especially in America,” Maher told The Guardian of her online following. “It’s not a money-making sport … I want to make sports a career and I don’t think many women can think that way.”
On Tuesday, Maher’s campaign to increase the American rugby fandom spread to NFL alum Jason Kelce, who went viral for a shirt plastered with Maher’s face.
The New Heights podcast posted on X, “Jason’s Olympic fits just get better and better.”
