A Blaze of Glory: Suni Lee’s Meteoric Rise to Her Second Olympics
Shortly after the announcement of the U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastic team last month, NBC anhor Hoda Kotb has dubbed the team the “Phoenix Five” and that name rings true not only after we saw the Olympic team pull out a silver team medal after Simone Biles pulled out due to the twisties, but also speaks to the comeback narrative that the four returning Olympians Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, and Jade Carey can realize if they have to bring home the gold in the Paris team final event with the help of their newcomer teammate Hezly Rivera.
When it comes to star power in a comeback, no phoenix burns brighter this year than Suni Lee. The difficult details of her journey back to elite gymnastics after her diagnosis parallels that of a phoenix rising from the ashes: After her historic win at the Tokyo Olympics all-around final, Suni became a star at Auburn University, finishing second in the all-around and winning the beam title at the NCAA national championships in 2022. Fans watched in eager anticipation about what she would do next after announcing her return to elite in her sophomore year: in the announcement video, she said with honest ambition, “I’ve been fortunate enough to experience that once-in-a-lifetime feeling and indescribable emotion when a gold medal is draped around your neck, but I don’t want it to be once in a lifetime.” Her dreams were dealt a crushing blow to this dream when her final NCAA season was cut short in March 2023 after a diagnosis of kidney disease.
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Throughout the next year, she would struggle balancing health issues and doubt as she ventured back into the elite world — through headaches, cramping, swelling and weight gain as much as 40 pounds, she worked through sickness and medications and treatment plans with her doctors. She notes days where her hands were too swollen to fit into her grips, needing to take a six month hiatus from gymnastics, and being told she may never be able to gymnastics again. There was so much uncertainty, but to the joy of her fans, she persevered. At the 2024 Olympic trials held last month, she placed second-in the all-around and in six short months of training became an undeniable pick for this year’s team.
If you look closer at Lee’s story, you’ll see the wings of the phoenix are Suni’s clear determination and action with intention. In her post-meet interviews, Suni generously credits her success to the people around her who supported her, but looking at Suni and her accomplishments since, another underlying reason for her success is a strong heart and mind wants to strive for more. According to USA today, Suni got a phone call from the doctor on January 4th this year that was a turning point for her, at that moment, she decided “I’m going back into the gym tomorrow and I’m going to be better than I ever was,” deciding, ‘Yep, this is what I want. And I’m gonna put my mind into it.”
There were some stumbles along the way: in February, she competed at Winter Cup, with the hope of getting an international assignment to the Bakue World Cup to get her new element — the full-twisting, laid-out Jaeger release move, which entails releasing the bar and doing a full twist in a laid-out position before catching the bar in the same direction — named, as new moves must be performed in a major international competition to be named for the gymnast performing them. Despite nailing the new skill in podium training, she missed the release and fell on bars twice and once on beam and fell short of her goal to get the international assignment. This was a setback, but from there we could see Suni’s steady climb back to the top.
Suni came back for another bite at the apple in late April, participating in the American Classic competition. While her fellow Olympic teammate Jade Carey won the all-around that day, Suni set and met her own individual goals for the competition. While she was working back up to full strength on all events, she decided only to compete beam and vault, hitting both routines and earning a 14.3 score on beam, the highest score of the competition on that apparatus, bolstered by her clean execution on her leaps, smooth connections, and high level of difficulty in her acrobatic elements. Her two-event score, 27.550 qualified her to May’s U.S. championships on two events, with the ability to petition to compete on all four.
Some gym fans casted doubt about Suni’s all-around capabilities when she competed in May at the Core Hydration Classic, as she again chose to forgo the all-around in favor of focusing on a smaller subset of events: beam, vault, and floor this time. Just as a baby Phoenix peaks its head out from its shell and gives clues of its blazing future with its burning eyes, Suni gave flashes of greatness here, earning the highest beam score of the competition, with a 14.6 outscoring even Olympic team favorites Simone Biles and Shilese Jones who placed first and second in the all-around of the competition. While competing in a stunning emerald green leotard, she sparkled and shined as she showed her first elite floor routine since the Tokyo Olympics, hitting a clean double layout as her opening pass, a combination twisting pass as her second, and a double-back flip as her last pass, showing us the foundation of a floor routine that she would upgrade later in the year. Similar to American Classic, she competed a full-twisting Yurchenko (FTY) as her vault, which she would also upgrade at her next competition to a double-twisting Yurchenko.
The next test was Nationals held on May 31st and June 2nd — Suni’s first try at the all-around after her kidney diagnosis, her full emergence back into the elite world. With an eye on pacing and at the same time making modifications to manage her kidney disease, Suni and her team told NBC their goal for the competition was for her to place top 5 in the all-around. Over the two days of competition, Suni debuted her first full set of elite routines since her diagnosis and hit her mark — she hit all routines her first day of competition, fell on vault at the beginning of day two, but came back strong on her bars, beam, and floor routines to finish the competition fourth behind Simone Biles, Skye Blakely, and Kayla DiCello. At this competition, we saw her steadily roll out more capabilities, pulling out a steady 5.8 difficulty bar routine, improving on her floor score (13.3 average at Nationals vs. 13.0 at Classics), and upgrading to a DTY on vault. Her talent, determination, and potential burn bright: even without full difficulty, she proved that she is a top 5 all-arounder.
The next competition would be Olympic trials held at the end of June, and it would prove to be the most difficult challenge to-date. At the opening vault of the competition on Day 1, Suni’s close friend and fellow Olympic frontrunner Kayla Dicello saw her own Olympic chances implode after a devastating Achilles injury to her right leg as she bailed out of her normal double-twisting Yurchenko with a back tuck, leaving the floor in a wheelchair. As the next competitor slated to go, Suni vaulted through tears, completing her own DTY vault, and managed to land on her feet after her hand slipped on the vault, pulling out a score of 13.525 even while mourning her friend’s crushed dreams. For the rest of Day 1, Suni hit a solid 6.3 difficulty bar routine, saved herself from a fall on beam, and showed an upgraded floor adding in a full twisting double layout, also known as a Chusovitina, as her first pass, to end the day third in the all-around standings. On Day 2, Suni improved on her bars, vault, and floor score, notably hitting more connections on her bar routine and sticking the landing, while scoring a 12.825 on beam after a fall on her mount.
Suni often uses journaling, visualization, and goal-setting to help her reach her gymnastics goals. During the NBC broadcast, Sam Peszek notes that Suni’s goals for trials were top 2–3 on beam and bars, and although her mistake on beam on Day 2 hurt her, Suni placed first on bars and second in the all-around competition. With this display of beautiful technique, high difficulty, and mental resilience and physical fortitude, she was subsequently was selected to the 2024 U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics team and in doing so inspired millions, showing them that even with living with serious chronic conditions, doing remarkable things is still possible. In the post-meet interview celebrating her success, she tried to hold back her tears as she admitted that with her kidney conditions, she “didn’t even believe this was possible,” making her moment all the more powerful.
One great thing about being a fan of Suni Lee is that she is open with her goals and you can see her intentionally working towards them. During the Tokyo Olympics, she said in an Instagram post that her goals were team gold, 2nd all-around placement, top 3 beam, and bars gold. As we know, she didn’t exactly realize this dream, instead realizing a bigger dream of winning the Olympic all-around competition, claiming the silver medal with the team, bronze on bars after missing connections during her event final routine, and fifth place on balance beam after qualifying in third. Scoring over 15.0 on three fourths of her bars routines throughout the Olympics, saving a wobble on balance beam during the all-around final, putting up the highest score on bars, beam and floor in the team final, and hitting every single routine without a fall, Suni breathed the rarified air that but a few select gymnasts get to breathe with her Olympic success. The phoenix doesn’t always follow the path you think it will — but the trail it leaves is always glorious.
This time around, we are lucky again that Suni has shared her goals with us. In her post-trials press conference: team gold, making the AA final, top 3 bars, and beam gold. The courage to share these goals with the public, the way Suni has shared her medical struggles and doubts throughout the past year, and the resilience to push through everything is inspiring — almost mythical.
It’s easy to be a Suni fan when she says her goals so clearly, works toward them so earnestly, and delivers so consistently. In the all-around qualifications at the Paris Olympics today, Suni proved again that she is a fighter and a champion. After taking out some difficulty on her beam and stepping out of bounds on her last pass on floor and teammate Jordan Chiles coming into the last rotation with more than a 5-tenths lead, there was doubt that Suni could make the all-around final — but with nerves of steel she delivered a 6.4 difficulty bar routine with a 8.466 execution score that clinched her spot as the third place qualifier in the all-around.
Suni has already shown us a blaze of glory — in Tokyo, and with her journey here in Paris as well. As the team, all-around, and event finals come around the corner in the coming days, I can’t wait to see her spread her wings even more, bring home more medals, and continue to inspire. She is truly the phoenix of this Olympics — back from the brink of doom, destined for great feats and to reach great heights — a miracle, really, that can inspire us all.
