Olympic all-around champion Suni Lee on ending season early: “It was a very difficult decision”

Tokyo 2020 all-around gold medallist Sunisa Lee says it was not easy to opt out of this week’s U.S. Women’s World Championships Selection Event in Katy, Texas.

“It was a very difficult decision, but my health is more important and I’m not in the best shape right now,” said Lee on Wednesday evening (20 September) in an Instagram story post.

USA Gymnastics had previously confirmed that Lee was invited to the selection event, but that the three-time Olympic medallist had opted out.

The 20-year-old has been dealing with a kidney-related health issue since March and that caused her to end her NCAA season at Auburn University early.

She told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview last month that she had hoped to qualify for the World trials, but that she faced a lot of uncertainty in her training.

“I have been in and out of the gym just because there’s just so many doctor’s appointments, and I’m taking a lot of medication, so it kind of varies every day,” said Lee of her training. “I could wake up very swollen some days and not be able to put my fingers inside my grips. It’s really difficult to kind of work through, but on the days that I can do stuff and I am feeling good, I try and take advantage of that and just get everything done.”

Lee said on Wednesday that she is still learning how to handle her health concerns.

“With my health, it comes with a lot of different changes since I’m still navigating my way through it all,” she wrote. She also explained that her decision to end her 2023 season early was based on “knowing my body right now and staying true to myself rather than pushing myself and not being satisfied with the results.”

The Minneapolis-native, however, has no regrets as she looks ahead to next season’s Olympic campaign.

“[It] was definitely a hard decision, but I’m 100% sure I made the right call in order to be my best for the upcoming year,” said Lee.