FILE – Suni Lee competes on the balance beam at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, Friday, Aug. 25, 2023, in San Jose, Calif. Olympic gymnastics all-around champion Suni Lee revealed this week that at the height of a mystery kidney ailment last year, she gained around 45 pounds in water weight that made her question whether a return to top form was even possible.
The then-18-year-old Lee was thrust into the spotlight at the Tokyo Games when teammate and reigning Olympic champion Simone Biles unexpectedly dropped out in the middle of the team final, citing her mental health. Lee hadn’t been in the original lineup for the U.S. team’s floor exercise but scored a team-best 13.666 to help the Americans claim a silver medal.
On to Auburn University she went, but she left the Tigers upon falling ill after her sophomore season last year. She was never a sure thing to come back for Paris, but now she’s expected to make the U.S. team, along with Biles, who is coming back as well. Lee is working on a new bars move that, if she pulls it off in an international competition, could be named after her in the sport’s Code of Points.