Suni Lee eyeing Baku World Cup, place in gymnastics’ Code of Points
The Olympic all-around champion tells Olympics.com her plans for the upcoming Winter Cup competition in Louisville, Kentucky
Olympic gymnastics all-around champion Suni Lee wants another piece of history: her name forever in the sport’s code of points.
The 20-year-old told Olympics.com Thursday (15 February) that she plans to compete on the uneven bars and balance beam at the upcoming Winter Cup competition in Louisville, Kentucky, scheduled for 24 February, with an eye on international competition next month.
She hopes her performance in Kentucky will be enought to land a trip to the World Cup in Baku, 7-10 March, where she can submit a new element to gymnastics' rule book.
If the Minneapolis-native successfully performs her full-twisting, layout Jaeger on the uneven bars, the element would then be called ‘the Lee.’
“I’m just excited because I think it’ll be pretty cool having the skill being named,” said Lee.
Coach Jess Graba added, “The whole reason we’re doing Winter Cup is so that we can go to Baku and get the skill named because Suni really wants to get that out of the way. Get it out of the way, so it’s not a question mark going into the spring.”
Lee began training the element, which she first showed the world in an Instagram post on 23 January, long ago, and it’s been a work in progress until recently.
“I’ve actually been working the skill for two years, so it’s taken me about two years to finally get consistent and catching it,” explained Lee. “But it’s never felt ready until now.”
Pushing the uneven bars envelope is nothing new for Lee and Graba. The pair say they contemplated other “crazy ideas” that could make an impact on her already out-of-this-world routine on the bars that won her Olympic bronze on the apparatus.
“We were looking for something cooler that we wanted to do,” says Graba, who added that a full-twisting Nabieva (toe-on layout Tkatchev) was one option, but the Jaeger was easier on his pupil’s body and fit into their routine construction easier. “Basically, Suni and I go back and forth with a lot of different, crazy ideas.”
The Winter Cup will be Lee’s first competition since withdrawing from last September’s U.S. World team selection event as she dealt with a kidney-related health condition that prematurely ended her NCAA season last March.