Sunisa Lee feeling 'sentimental' as elite gymnastics return nears
The Tokyo 2020 all-around champion opens up ahead of competition at this week's U.S. Classic after dealing with a kidney-related health issue since February in an exclusive interview with Olympics.com
Artistic Gymnastics
Tokyo 2020 Olympic gymnastics all-around gold medallist Sunisa Lee was feeling better than ever back in February.
“In January and February, I was probably in the best shape that I’ve been in, I was really strong,” said Lee in an exclusive interview with Olympics.com Monday (31 July 2023). “I was coming up with new skills, combos, it was really exciting.
“Then, all this started to happen,” Lee continued.
‘All this’ refers to the kidney-related health issue that forced the 20-year-old to end her sophomore season at Auburn University early and continues to hamper her training.
“I feel like if I was going at the pace that I was back then, I would definitely be ready for the Olympics [today],” said Lee.
Instead, Lee has spent the last five months since her diagnosis working her way back. The process has not been easy or quick with the three-time Olympic medallist saying that finding a consistent rhythm to her training has been a challenge.
“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. “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.”
Despite the obstacles, Lee will – cautiously – make her return this week at the U.S. Classic in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, a Chicago suburb.
The 2021 U.S. all-around silver medallist’s competition plans are fluid. The goal is to get her qualifying score to the U.S. championships later in August, and coach Jess Graba says they’ll make a game time decision on what events to perform on.
“I think we’re gonna wait and see, we’ve got three events kind of ready to go, we’re not going to do floor at all,” explained Graba. “We’ve got a half routine on bars, we’ve got a kind of mild routine on beam that she should be able to be fine with, which is actually a pretty high start value at this point.
“Then, we’ll probably do a backup vault, like a [Yurchenko] full, just to be safe. We just need to get our two event or three event score,” he concluded.
A sentimental return
During her NCAA seasons, Lee has often shared the journal entries she had written before competition.
They were a way of setting her intention, putting on paper her goals and her approach before she performs.
Ahead of competition in Chicago on Saturday (5 August), Lee says her journal will focus on managing her own expectations.
“I’m definitely not putting pressure on myself because that’s what I’ve been doing in the gym,” she admitted. “It’s just been stressing me out so much, thinking about all the things that could possibly happen, like if I needed to go to the doctor or something, or even just having the fear of competing because I have the title of being the Olympic champion.
“It’s like, ‘Oh, my gosh, now if I go out there and I don’t show them I’m better than I was at the last Olympics,’ [then] people are gonna be like, ‘Oh, she didn’t deserve to win,’” continued Lee. “So, I feel like I just let that stuff get in my head too much.”
Her performance at the Classic won’t be about winning or scores. She knows that and admits that this is still early days for her: “I’m not ready.”
Instead, her performance will be a triumph in and of itself.
“I’m honestly just trying to get back out there,” says Lee. “I was telling Jess and the doctors, I’m probably gonna end up crying because I’m not even really supposed to be doing gymnastics right now. So, it’s just really, I guess, sentimental.”
Lee targeting all-around at nationals
That doesn't mean there's not a lot more in store for Lee in 2023.
Graba says his pupil is making strides, despite not being fully ready for her first competition in elite gymnastics since the Tokyo Games.
Her skill level has returned, he says, as Lee has found what he called "a little bit better system on...medication," but building stamina remains an issue.
"The stamina is what's killing us right now, not necessarily the skill level," Graba said. "[She] can't train every day predictably right now, so we're going to try to play it safe and not take any risks at this point, and just try to get through as easy as we can."
Her goals for the season ahead include competing on all four events at nationals and advancing to the World trials, but Lee is working hard not to get too far ahead of herself.
"The goal [at U.S. championships] is to do all four events both days, because I am trying to build up to see if I could hopefully make it to World trials," said Lee. "I'm definitely pushing myself, but it's just a matter of taking it day-by-day because I don't want to do something stupid and then have it take me out even longer or like just a dumb injury. We're just trying to be safe and smart."
“I really do want that bars gold.”
Despite the setbacks she’s faced and the cautious approach with which she and Graba are taking with her return, Lee remains as ambitious as ever.
“I really do want that bars gold,” said Lee, who took bronze on the event at Tokyo 2020.
The apparatus has become her signature with Lee able to do what seems like a never-ending list of elements with the ability to connect in and out of all of them.
Lee’s training clips on the event often set the gymnastics community online ablaze with many speculating what her final routine will look like.
It hasn’t gone unnoticed by Lee or Graba.
“I honestly think it’s really funny. I will look at some of these routines [fans come up with] and I’m just like, ‘You guys think I’m capable of that?! You guys are crazy.” But then I see some where I’m like, ‘Actually that could be a good idea,’ and I’ll go in and try it. I always show Jess potential routines that they come up with, and we just laugh about it because I’m like, ‘This is crazy.’”
“A lot of times I look at it, and I’m like, ‘There’s a reason it hasn’t been done before,’” added Graba.
Lee on Paris 2024: “I just really wanted to do it for myself.”
As Lee celebrated the one-year anniversary of her Tokyo triumph last July, she had yet to publicly commit to returning to elite gymnastics.
Now, with just under a year until the Opening Ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Lee is clear-eyed about her objective in the French capital: “This time, I feel like I just really wanted to do it for myself.”
As she debated about a return to elite gymnastics, she says she knew she “just wasn’t done” and that she was “capable of so much more.”
It's likely a familiar feeling for a pair of fellow Olympic all-around winners.
Lee will be making her run at a second Games alongside two other previous Olympic all-around champions: Simone Biles, the 2016 gold medallist, and Gabby Douglas, the winner in 2012.
The staying power of Biles and Douglas gives Lee pause about how long her own career might be able to extend, though she says with all the challenges 2023 has brought, she’s more focused on the next 12 months.
“It’s crazy,” said Lee. “That’s never been done before… so, it just makes it a lot more nerve wracking. I was looking back at senior Classic before and I was like, ‘That was a really hard group to even make the last Olympics.’ I feel like it’s gonna be a lot more difficult [next year] because I feel like everyone just brings something to the table.”