Sunique! 2020 Olympic All-Around Champion Suni Lee Readies for Paris

11 Jul Sunique! 2020 Olympic All-Around Champion Suni Lee Readies for Paris

Posted at 18:39h in News & Features, Paris 2024 by Christy Sandmaier 0 Comments

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Dates: July 27 – August 5
Venue: Bercy Arena
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Sunique! 2020 Olympic All-Around Champion Suni Lee Readies for Paris

By Christy Sandmaier

As 1984 Olympic team silver and balance beam bronze medalist Kathy Johnson Clarke once told us, for everything she does and for everything she is, Suni Lee is special in her own way, and truly “Sunique!”

Since being crowned the 2020 Olympic All-Around Champion, Suni’s journey has taken so many twists and turns to get to the Bercy Arena, it’s beyond extraordinary. Determination, tenacity and resolve can only begin to describe her path to Paris and no one is more grateful than she is to return to the Games. In fact, she was once so far away from her second Olympic dream, she nearly gave it all up. Now, as she prepares to step on the floor in Paris, the moment, we imagine, will be overwhelming and that much sweeter.

“We didn’t even think that I would be here, so everything has been hitting me like a freaking roller coaster,” Lee said in Minneapolis following the Olympic Trials. “I have not stopped crying since, but I’m just so happy. I’m so, so glad that I never gave up.”

After all she has endured over the last year, it’s remarkable that she’s even back on the competition floor, let alone part of the most decorated women’s Olympic gymnastics team the U.S. has ever fielded. As Team USA charts their final preparations for the Games, not only is redemption in Suni’s mind and on her heart as she heads to Paris, so is reclaiming the joy we first saw the moment she was crowned the best in the world three years ago in Tokyo.

“The Suni Factor”

As an Olympic All-Around champion and the 2022 NCAA All-Around runner up, she became a role model, a hero, and a true inspiration influencing so many young athletes around the world. She was named one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” as one of the “Pioneers” alongside world leaders, athletes, artists, entrepreneurs and other prominent figures. Auburn even awarded her Student-Athlete of the Year after her freshman season. And with all of the glitter and gold that followed the Games, Suni navigated a world she never expected under the glaring spotlight of post-Olympic magic. She balanced being both a celebrity and a student-athlete, the pressure of being expected to turn out Olympic-caliber performances time and time again in college, and facing the sometimes very-unforgiving social media stage and scrutiny. It was a balance that had to evolve and at times, must have seemed impossible.

In Women’s NCAA Gymnastics, there had never been an athlete with so many great expectations placed upon her before she even set foot in the gym at Auburn. With the title of best in the world hers, global recognition and a wealth of opportunities before her including substantial financial gain, Lee was expected to perform her freshman year perfectly. And she almost did.

Not only did Suni stand in the silver medal position in Fort Worth at the 2022 NCAA Championships, she helped lead her team to its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Championship final where they finished fourth. Throughout the season, she won seven All-Around titles, was Auburn’s first gymnast to score a 10, and set the program All-Around record at 39.825. And she did it following a fall season of Dancing with the Stars and countless trips across the county to walk red carpets, accept awards, chat it up on the late night talk show circuit, and fulfill sponsorship expectations.

Nevermind her entire life prior had been devoted to making the Olympic team. Nevermind her schedule was anything but normal and she’d never lived away from home. Freshman year can be arduous and challenging for any college student, but imagine doing it with the entire world watching.

“The Suni Factor” became a headline, a theme across college gymnastics every time she entered the arena as we all waited to see what record would be broken next, how many 10s she would score and how perfect she would be. It was exciting and real. And it was unfathomable pressure.

As the season progressed, her ever-growing influence was apparent across platforms. Auburn saw record crowds with raucous student sections and consistent competition success they previously hadn’t. Her social media numbers soared again and new fans followed the sport. She was cheered on for every success, and critiqued for every minor misstep – whether a rare mistake in competition or an interview soundbite gone wrong.

It created an extraordinarily complicated life for a college freshman who became an overnight sensation just a few months earlier.

“There’s so many people watching me,” she told ESPN in March of 2022, noting she found support in her team during the tough moments. “I needed to be a part of a team to find my love for the sport again in order to keep getting better,” Lee says. “I needed to somewhat be normal.”

On March 31, the day of the Auburn Regional, she shared a screenshot of her journal. “Eliminate the Doubt” it said. It was a poignant and raw phrase from the reigning Olympic All-Around Champion and spoke volumes about her mindset, personal drive and the weight of expectations she felt. “Control the Controllables”… “Give Yourself Grace.”

It spoke volumes.

Game-Changer

What followed her 2022 NCAA season was something Suni never could have imagined – a debilitating and very well-publicized health issue that for a very long time, left more questions than answers. In addition to the frustration of not being able to train or compete, she faced head on the feelings of doubt and sadness that came with a college career cut short and having to explain it all, and, as it turned out, a less than positive experience at Auburn.

She had already announced plans in November 2022 to leave college and focus on 2024 when she missed the end of the regular season, the SEC Championship and the NCAA regional because of what Auburn described as a “non-gymnastics health issue.” She was diagnosed with a kidney condition in early 2023. Returning home to Minnesota, she was unsure if she’d ever compete in gymnastics again.

“It’s been challenging to end my Auburn career early, but I am thankful for all the love and support,” Suni wrote on social media. “I will not stop pursuing my dreams for a bid to Paris in 2024. In fact, this experience has sharpened my vision for the future. I appreciate all the love and support, and I want to especially thank my doctors, coaches, and the Auburn medical staff for their care during this time.

“I have been dealing with a non-gymnastics health issue related to my kidneys. For my safety, the medical team did not clear me to train and compete over the last few weeks. I am blessed and thankful to be working with the best specialized medical team to treat and manage my diagnosis. My focus at this time is my health and recovery. It’s been challenging to end my Auburn career early, but I am thankful for all of the love and support.”

Little did we know at the time, however, that the NCAA season and college experience also presented extremely tough life lessons Suni never expected. Speaking with Sports Illustrated before Olympic Trials, she said she felt that she couldn’t confide in her teammates about the challenges she faced about feeling isolated and left out due to her status and being watched everywhere she went. “A lot of the girls weren’t the nicest to me,” she says. “I just really felt like an outcast, almost. They didn’t treat me that well. I just knew that I couldn’t trust them.” (She adds, “I have a couple of good, really genuine friends there,” but they are athletes in other sports.)

At one point during her road to recovery and back to Olympic form, swelling from her illness was so bad that the uneven bars great couldn’t even get in her grips to chalk up. She also found herself battling not only the physical ailments of the illness, but the mental anguish that comes along with it that resulted in some depression. Suddenly, it wasn’t about returning to the Olympic stage, it was about getting out of bed in the morning. Restoring her physical and mental health was the number one priority in a roller coaster ride that just wouldn’t stop.

Building back slowly, she placed third on beam at the 2023 Xfinity U.S. Championships, but opted out of an opportunity to try for a spot on the 2023 World Championship team. Heading into 2024, the biggest questions surrounding Suni continued to focus on her health, and if she would opt to compete in the All-Around. In podium training in February at Winter Cup, she was looking confident and sharp as she landed skill after skill – including a beautiful full-twisting Jaeger release on uneven bars – and did it with her typical polish and style. But in competition, she struggled. Two falls on uneven bars followed by another on beam left the Olympic Champ looking temporarily dismayed and audiences stunned. At the time, we wished everyone could have seen her in podium training to know just how sharp she actually looked and to know that the potential to make the 2024 Olympic team was absolutely, without a doubt, a real possibility.

That day in February also reminded us that even the greatest athletes in the world are, indeed, human. How she responded is the true mark of a champion and Suni was already putting the meet into perspective and moving forward by the time she reached the media that afternoon. “It obviously wasn’t what I wanted, but in all honesty, I think that it’s good that it happened here rather than somewhere else. Like, you can’t get anywhere without failing,” she said.

For athletes of all ages and levels, it was an important reminder. We all have bad days, even the defending Olympic Champion. But how we brush ourselves off and pick up the pieces is how we’ll make our mark—a sentiment echoed by her coach Jess Graba following the meet, who noted that even an Olympic Champion makes mistakes. It’s what you do with those mistakes that count, and Suni took them as fuel.

Following the American Classic, where she competed vault (13.250) and beam (a meet high 14.300), she headed to Hartford for the Core Hydration U.S. Classic and reminded us all once again not only of the magic she can create on the floor, but showed the will of a true champion. Competing on vault, beam and floor, she looked confident and strong, winning beam and ready to look ahead to Fort Worth at the Xfinity U.S. Championships on the road to her second Olympic Games. In Fort Worth, not only did she compete in the All-Around, but she placed fourth and punched her ticket to Olympic Trials. And three weeks later, under the lights of an electric hometown crowd who gave her more than one standing ovation throughout the two days of competition, Suni Lee was named to her second Olympic team, pure joy on her face, tears illuminating how meaningful the moment truly was.

On July 28, she’ll take the floor in Qualifications alongside her Tokyo teammates Simone Biles, Jade Carey, and Jordan Chiles on the toughest team in the world to make, and in what was quickly labeled by all of them as their Redemption Tour. They’ll be joined by 16-year-old Hezly Rivera, the youngest of the entire Team USA contingent in Paris. What Suni’s learned will carry her through what promises to be an epic Olympic Games.

“We really want a team gold,” she said in the press conference following the competition. “I feel like this is the same team basically as 2020. It’s like a redemption tour. So I’m excited to go back out there with the girls and really just see what we bring to the table. I think this time around, we’re so much more mature and just more grown up to where we know what we can do and what we can’t do.

“I think that I’ve learned that I am a lot stronger than I think and that I’m capable of anything if I put my mind to it because I know that my mind wasn’t always in it for the Olympics. I mean, after I got sick, it wasn’t in it for the Olympics. I just wanted to be healthy again. As soon as I was like, ‘Okay, we’re trying for the Olympics.’ I can’t believe that I’m here.”

She’s here. And she’s ready to show the world once again who she is. She’s a strong figure in our sport and has already achieved the highest success on the competition floor. She has nothing left to prove but as with any great athlete, her eyes are focused on being her very best — and going above and beyond what she’s already achieved.

“I want to contribute in the Team Final, of course,” she said of her goals in Paris. “Then maybe… No, I want to make All-Around finals. I feel like I really want to be in the top three for [the] bars final, and I really want the beam gold.”

In a career made up of so many incredible moments, seeing Suni’s journey of perseverance and determination over the course of the last four years will continue to shine as one of the brightest we’ve seen, and is hers alone to own.