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Suni Lee breathed a heavy sigh of relief after she landed her final dismount Saturday night (18 May) at the U.S. Classic.
The reigning Olympic all-around champion in gymnastics, Lee competed only three apparatuses as Rio 2016 champion Simone Biles roared to victory, but the win is internal for Lee, 21, who is taking the long road to punching her second ticket to an Olympic Games.
"It was really important for me to go out there and fight to fight those demons," a relieved Lee told reporters. "These competitions have been helping me build my confidence up."
Lee has faced a myriad of challenges since her win at Tokyo 2020 in 2021, including a kidney disorder, while also being outspoken about feeling a lack of motivation to put in the day-to-day work.
"It's what we came here to do; that was what we wanted," Jess Garba, Lee's coach, said. "A year ago, I didn't think we'd" be here, he added. "Everything she's doing, it's just icing on the cake. The gymnastics doesn't really matter. She's an inspiration to the kids at our gym, my team, everything. So that's enough."
Lee would win the night on beam, her 14.600 class of the field. It was the floor routine, however, where she was fighting the most of those demons, having not competed on floor since February of 2023, when she was in collegiate gymnastics for Auburn.
"I really wanted to get out there and compete on floor," she said, breaking into a smile. "It's been a while. Obviously not the routine that I want for upcoming competitions, but I really just wanted to get out there again."
"I just really want to be able to do this for myself," an honest Lee said when asked to reflect on her Classic performance.
"I want to be able to walk away and just know that I gave everything that I had instead of just giving up and not making it," she said.
Lee and Garba agreed as they spoke with reporters that Suni "hasn't been the easiest to work with" the past couple months, but their focus on the process is showing: The reigning Olympic champion came to Hartford, Connecticut, and got done what they had set out to do.
Next stop: The U.S. Championships 30 May-2 June in Fort Worth, Texas, before the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in late June. The building blocks are in place.
After leaving NCAA gymnastics to focus on elite again, she is now letting herself believe that she could go for the all-around, something that hadn't always been in the works.
"I think at the beginning it was just like I was trying to focus on bars and beam," she explained. "Whereas now I'm like hungrier to be able to be in the all-around. So that's just been the main priority."
"We needed to get floor out of the way and we really wanted to get beam under pressure," added Garba. "And since beam was last, that's [exactly] what we wanted."
That was when the sigh of relief came out, which can now double as a deep breath before they take those next steps to Paris.