Within zero seconds of his introduction on Dancing With the Stars, Stephen Nedoroscik is on the pommel horse. The camera spans over his shirtless body as he recaps his Olympic journey and shows off more abs than anybody with an electrical-engineering degree should be legally allowed to have. Then, his dance comes on, and it references everything else we know about him. He begins the jive by taking off his glasses, the set is all Rubik’s Cube–themed, and he is all nerdy, jumpy energy. As a cast member on season 33 of Dancing With the Stars, he is facing off against people with some pretty well-known shticks. His fellow Olympian Ilona Maher is a TikTok star, Phaedra Parks has both Traitors and RHOA lore to draw on, and Anna Delvey is a Netflix-adapted con artist with the bedazzled ankle monitor to prove it. But the new boy proved he could throw down with the rest of them, scoring 21 points — just two points off from the top score of the night. The judges docked him for not pointing his toes, but this is the premiere, when he hasn’t been dancing long enough to have any real technique. Everybody knows the real goal is just to stand out.
