The Olympics: What happened to Suni Lee?

America has been blessed with some truly elite gymnasts in recent years, and one of the most successful is Suni Lee.

The superstar Hmong-American athlete, born Sunisa Phabsomphou, already has two Olympic gold medals under her belt, and is looking to add to her glittering collection in Paris. However, between her success in Tokyo and her upcoming attempts to repeat it in the 2024 competition, it hasn’t been plain sailing for the Minnesota-born gymnast.

From March 2023, Lee took a six-month hiatus from the world of gymnastics because of an incurable kidney disease. Thankfully, as of this year Lee has confirmed she is in remission, and as she showed recently, she’s back to her sparkling best on the beams. Even so, you might be wondering what happened to Suni Lee? Read on to find out.

Health related issues

In March 2023 Lee was in the form of her career. She’d won gold, silver, and bronze Olympic medals as well as several world championships, and was absolutely dominating in NCAA events after enrolling at Auburn. However, that was all to change thanks to some deeply unfortunate news.

Lee noticed that there were swellings dotted all over her body, and took herself to the doctor. Initially the large bumps were thought to be allergic reactions, but it was soon revealed to be a much more serious problem than that.

As per Sports Illustrated, the decorated gymnast revealed that doctors had determined she was suffering from an incurable kidney disease. However, she declined to discuss further details around her illness, preferring instead to recover with maximum privacy.

That was easier said than done, as Lee had fast become one of the most marketable faces in American sport. She had secured deals with everyone from Amazon to LEGO during her meteoric rise to fame, and as such speculation around her condition was rife.

While the exact nature of her condition has not been revealed, Lee has given details on her symptoms. These included debilitating headaches, cramps, hot and cold flashes, and the aforementioned swellings.

Getting back to training

In a recent interview with E! News, Lee went into some detail about her illness, and how she has been working to get back to her best:

“The kidney disease took me out for a couple of months. I just got a lot weaker because I wasn’t in the gym training—I’ve been doing a lot of physical therapy and try to keep my body as healthy as possible and feeling good because it’s gonna be a really long season.”

As a result, her workouts had to become heavily modified from what she was used to, while still offering her the chance to compete at the very highest level. It’s a testament to her natural ability that she is able to continue to succeed despite the unnamed disease that kept her sidelined for multiple months.

During a recent event with Team USA, Lee even went as far to say as she has improved from her incredibly high 2021 standards:

“I feel so much better. I’m like, ‘I’m way better already than I was at the last Olympics.’ And I didn’t even think that I could get better than that. So that gives me a little more comfort and knowing that anything that I put my mind to, I can accomplish.”

Looking forward to Paris 2024

During her interview with E! Lee also talked about how she was putting the time in to get back to her best, spending as long as eight hours a day practicing her routines, as well as an additional four on strength and conditioning, stating “I’m focusing on getting the skills named and just upping my level of difficulty.”

She also delved into her newfound self-care routine, adding:

“I’ve definitely been taking a lot of time for myself. I think that’s one thing about this year, I’ve really learned to prioritize my well-being and just making sure that everything that I’m doing is adding to my life, not really taking away.”

Part of that includes therapy, as well as visualization of future success to get her mind in the right spot to compete.

With that all said, she has alsomade it clear that post-Paris she is looking forward to taking some time off for herself, and possibly even travelling to some sunny destinations to recover:

“I can’t wait to let my body rest. This is gonna be like my time to go on a vacation, non-gymnastics related and be gymnastics-free for a little bit. I think it’ll be good for my body and my mental health.”