BOSTON, Mass. — Stephen Nedoroscik’s pommel horse heroics at the Olympics have given people in his hometown of Worcester plenty to cheer about, but in addition to his two bronze medals, he’s also helped spotlight an eye disorder called strabismus.

He revealed the condition in a video posted to TikTok. Since then, the 25-year-old gymnast has also appeared on TODAY to discuss the increased attention he’s brought to strabismus, which is the medical term for misaligned eyes.

Dr. Dean Cestari, director of adult strabismus at Mass Eye and Ear, has also been spending a lot of time discussing the condition with reporters and media.

“The media reached out and contacted me looking for someone to explain his strabismus, what is this condition that he has?” Cestari said. “I don’t go on TikTok, but I’ve been telling my wife, ‘I should do some strabismus videos on TikTok to help educate people.'”

Nedoroscik also has a coloboma, or an area of missing tissue in the eye, which causes a pupil to have a keyhole shape.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Nedoroscik acknowledged his openness about both eye disorders has certainly sparked a dialogue.

“Even just last week, for the first time, I met someone else who has the same eye condition as me,” Nedoroscik said. “It was also my first time meeting someone outside my family that has that disease. That was so cool to see that, and you know, he was just so happy.”

According to Penn Medicine, strabismus occurs in three to five percent of the population. Their eyes may turn inward, outward or be vertically misaligned.

As Cestari explains, it can be quite challenging for people to navigate, and they may use tactics like squinting to get by.

“If you have a misalignment of the eye, light is coming in one direction and it’s coming from a different direction in the other eye, so you’ll see double images” Cestari said. “People close one eye to get rid of that second image.”

For decades, it was thought the condition couldn’t be fixed unless it was addressed during childhood, but with advances in medical science, trained ophthalmologists like Cestari are performing surgery on adults to correct strabismus.

As the population continues to skew older, he said more and more people are showing interest in getting the surgery.

“I have all these patients, I was prepping for surgery this week, I'm in surgery Wednesday and Friday all day fixing it,” Cestari said. “And new patients who said that they'd been waiting nine, ten months to see me, because there aren't that many people in this area and in the country who specialize in it.”

Cestari is hopeful that Nedoroscik’s star power will help even more people realize there’s a fix for their strabismus.

“They’re super happy, and they’re like, ‘This is great, but how could I suffer like this for 10 or 15 years?” Cestari said. “How come nobody referred me to you?’ So that’s what’s fantastic about all of this news coverage the Olympics is bringing to this condition, because people are asking about this.”

Nedoroscik captured a bronze medal in the pommel horse on Saturday, following up a strong performance which helped the American men’s gymnastics team earn a bronze medal earlier in the week.