“I’m going to continue gymnastics until my body can’t handle it anymore,” Stephen Nedoroscik said last year, when asked about how long he feels he can keep up the show. And why wouldn’t he want that? After all, just months before that statement, the Penn State alum and his national teammates made history by bagging an Olympic medal in men’s gymnastics after almost two decades! But before fans got to see him on the pommel horse again, the 26-year-old had a special treat planned for the world.

The Olympic medalist was announced as one of the entrants for last year’s Dancing With The Stars. In the 33rd season of the popular reality TV show, Nedoroscik set the stage on fire with his moves, accompanied by his DWTS partner Rylee Arnold. And now, as the artistic gymnast comes to terms with his changing body condition, it seems like he just can’t keep the experience off his mind.

In a TikTok upload from September 26, Nedoroscik spoke about how the ongoing 34th season of Dancing With The Stars is making him go down memory lane. This year, Arold has paired up with Scott Hoying, singer of the American a cappella band, Pentatonix. The team’s tango routine to Lady Gaga’s Abracadabra in the first week of the program brought them only 10 points, but they made up for it with a stellar cha-cha-cha performance in Week 2, earning 18 points. But while Arnold continues to cement her status as a DWTS veteran, Stephen Nedoroscik is only having FOMO.

“Rylee and Scott have been killing it this season, but I gotta say, I’m a little jealous. I kind of miss it…I really miss it,” confessed Nedoroscik with a chuckle. As fate would have it, Nedoroscik is in the same city where DWTS is shot, albeit for a very different reason. “It’s gonna be so weird being on the other side of it, but also a lot less stressful,” he said, with a hint of a long face.

However, he didn’t seem to think he would have made much of an impression if he were cast in this season’s DWTS. Last year, Nedoroscik reached the final of the show, but he believes things would be very different if he had entered the competition a year later. “I joked last year that I would get eliminated week 3, and I unironically think I would get eliminated week three of this cast,” grinned Nedoroscik.

Well, maybe jokes are how he’s trying to keep his mind diverted from reality. In the same TikTok video, the gymnast revealed his physical oddity that’s making it tough for him to execute moves on the pommel horse. “So it turns out I have a cam deformity, which means that my ball and socket joint isn’t exactly a ball and socket. It’s more like an oval and socket. So I’ve kind of been straining my hip for the past 13 years of my life, and as of recently, it’s really starting to hurt. Now I have a double labrum tear and a bunch of damage to my cartilage,” he said, while showing his form looks off in the post’s accompanying video.

Quite the blow, especially for an athlete who was eagerly looking forward to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Nedoroscik’s return to gymnastics at the Xfinity US Championships didn’t go too well, and considering his troubles, we can only speculate about when he’ll be back in full form again. However, the silver lining is that while Nedoroscik and his fans wait, they will always have fond DWTS memories to resort to.

Stephen Nedoroscik’s DWTS debut will always be special

If you don’t remember, Nedoroscik had a blast showing off his dancing skills at the TV show last year. While his announcement about participating in the DWTS shocked the fans, they soon learned that the gymnast wasn’t there just for the kicks: He actually enjoyed himself at the show and could go toe-to-toe with even the most seasoned dancers! Maybe it was because, to Nedoroscik, the entire setup felt similar to Olympic gymnastics. And the Penn State alum proved that even with his eye condition, he was just as good at setting the floor on fire as he is on the pommel horse.

Rylee Arnold, too, could hardly stop gushing about her dancing partner and how the latter was helping the sport by his courageous decision to try his hand at something entirely new. It seemed like Nedoroscik’s bold decision was also an inspiration for millions of children around the world, who battled physical adversities but dared to dream big.

Got any particular memories of your own of Stephen Nedoroscik rocking it out with Rylee Arnold at the Dancing With The Stars? Share with us!