After being diagnosed with two forms of a kidney disease that kept her out of gymnastics, the reigning all-around champion is heading back to the Olympics.

 

 

One year ago, Suni Lee wasn’t sure she’d be where she is now—heading to Paris with Team USA to compete at the 2024 Olympics. It didn’t matter that the gymnast was the reigning all-around gold medalist from the Tokyo 2020 Games, or that she made history as the first Asian-American woman and first Hmong-American to do so. After suffering two kidney-related illnesses that disrupted her training regimen and cut her NCAA season short, the Olympics seemed out of reach. “That was probably the hardest couple of months,” the 21-year-old confesses. “I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do it.”

Back in February 2023, Lee’s face, hands, ankles, and feet started to swell up. She underwent multiple tests, but her condition remained a mystery until doctors ultimately discovered two diseases linked to her kidneys. (She has not publicly shared the exact nature of her illness, because her doctors believe it might continue to change, according to Self.) Two months later, she bowed out of competing in collegiate gymnastics at Auburn University, where she’d been a student athlete for two years. But the Olympics were still on the horizon. “I will not stop pursuing my dreams for a bid to Paris in 2024,” she wrote at the time.

For a gymnast who began formal training at the ripe age of six, Lee couldn’t stay away for too long. In August of 2023, she earned a silver medal on the balance beam at the U.S. Classic. A few weeks later, she won the bronze on beam at the U.S. Championships.

Ever since then, she’s been taking things day by day. “I am in remission, so I’m getting a lot stronger,” she says. “I’ve been able to train a lot more, and I am just so happy, because I really didn’t think I would be here. To be here is quite incredible.”

Lee poses with her teammates after Olympic trials.
At the Olympic trials, she placed second in the all-around and claimed her spot on the team going to Paris. “I didn’t even think this was possible,” she said through tears in an NBC interview afterward.

Lee tells me she is feeling “a lot better” when we speak on the phone, in the middle of a LoveShackFancy campaign she’s shooting in New York. But it hasn’t been an easy journey back, especially when online critics are involved. “There was a point where I didn’t want to show my face on social media,” she says. “You just know people are always going to say something, but I’ve just had to learn that none of that stuff matters.” After all, she adds, “They can’t do half the things that I can…or anything that I can.”

Lee has learned to prioritize therapy and “asking for help when I need it,” she says. “My mental health is the number one priority.” In fact, therapy has become a key part of her eight-hour training day, between morning and evening practice. “I’m just thinking of it as, it’s for me,” she explains. “I’m competing for myself. I’m proving it to myself.”

But Lee can’t help it—sometimes the comments still affect her. “I just don’t like the feeling of when people don’t like you.” She’s trying her best to stay off social media per her coaches’ and managers’ advice, but it’s difficult to unplug when you’re a star athlete with brand deals and 1.6 million Instagram followers. “It’s hard, because it’s also my job,” she says.

At her nadir, sometimes the biggest critic was inside Lee’s own head. “I just looked like a completely different person, so it took a toll on my mental health, and [led to] me just not even wanting to look in the mirror.” But she’s come a long way. “I feel like I’m getting back to regular Suni. And my confidence is back to normal.”

topshot usa’s sunisa lee competes in the balance beam event of the artistic gymnastics women’s all around final during the tokyo 2020 olympic games at the ariake gymnastics centre in tokyo on july 29, 2021 photo by loic venance afp photo

“I feel like I’m getting back to regular Suni,” Lee says. “My confidence is back to normal.”

She finds strength in her teammates, like Simone Biles, who is also back on the Olympic team this year. “Simone is absolutely incredible, and somebody that I look up to every single time I go and compete against her, because the things that she can do are just unreal. And it’s so inspiring, because it just makes me want to get better and better.”

After her first Olympics, Lee enjoyed campus life (and NCAA titles) in Alabama, where she became the first all-around gold medalist to compete in collegiate gymnastics. “College is really fun,” she says. “It’s really about the team aspect.” The Auburn team felt “like having 18 sisters,” she says.

 

Lee comes from a big family herself. Her mom and dad emigrated from Laos to Saint Paul, Minnesota, to raise Suni and her five siblings. “We love to eat. My mom cooks a lot, or I’ll just take my siblings out to go shopping and spend the day with them, because I don’t get to see them as much.” One of her older sisters is a licensed lash technician who does Lee’s lash extensions every few weeks.

“After the Olympics, I was welcomed home with a parade with all of my family, and just a lot of the Asian community in Minnesota, so it was really heartwarming,” Lee says.

“They’ve done so much for me, so I was super, super grateful to be able to see everybody’s faces, and know that they all support me for me, not just a gold medal.”

When asked if she’ll return to Auburn in the fall, Lee isn’t sure. But she does know that she wants to move to New York sometime after competing in Paris. “I don’t know how much gymnastics I’ll be doing during that time, but maybe L.A. in 2028. We’ll see.”

As for why the midwesterner sees New York in her future, she jokingly replies, “There’s a lot of good food here.” But she quickly adds, “Also, I feel like it’s just such a good place to start my life. I feel like my whole life has just been gymnastics, so this is just me stepping into a new chapter, and doing something new with my life.”

los angeles, california november 16 gymnast suni lee poses during the team usa paris 2024 olympic portrait shoot at nbc universal studios stage 16 on november 16, 2023 in los angeles, california photo by harry howgetty images

Harry How

The 2028 L.A. Olympics could be in Lee’s future. “We’ll see,” she says.

Her gymnastics hero

Nastia Liukin, because of her beautiful lines and artistry. I absolutely love her gymnastics style.

Go-to pump-up song

“Saturn” by SZA or anything by Tyla.

Favorite gymnastics move

A Jaeger full, because it feels like I’m flying and feels really cool.

Least favorite gymnastics move

A kip cast or dismount, not for any other reason than I just love to do the fun and challenging stuff and had to pick something.

First call if she wins a gold medal

My manager and my doctor. They have gotten me through the hardest of times and believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself.

Dream Olympic team

Nastia Liukin, Aliya Mustafina, Simone Biles, Svetlana Khorkina, and Dominique Dawes.

Pre-competition beauty routine

I truly take my time. I take a nap and start getting ready a few hours before I need to be at the gym. Since I can’t braid my own hair, I get my hair braided by my sister or a friend, and slowly get ready to get into a good headspace. I always do my own makeup and like to try out different things to match whatever leotard I’m wearing that day.

Good luck charm

It is a superstition, but the person braiding my hair only gets one try. I always say it will dictate how my meet goes.

Best motivational advice she’s ever received
Nothing more, nothing less—and to remember my key words.

If she weren’t a gymnast, she would be…
I’d perhaps explore being a singer.