Why Suni Lee Was 'Done' With Gymnastics Just Months Before Paris Olympics
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That’s what you call a comeback! After fighting her way back to the Olympics amid two kidney disease diagnoses, Suni Lee has dominated the Games. The 21-year-old gymnast took home bronze in the individual-all around and uneven bars competitions, and, of course, was part of the gymnastics team that brought home the gold for Team USA.
Suni is no stranger to Olympic hardware, taking home the gold medal for the individual all-around in the 2020 Tokyo Games. But this win holds new significance, as it comes on the heels of significant health challenge that threw her ability to compete—and even get out of bed—into question.
Suni was diagnosed with two incurable kidney diseases in 2023. So even making the team this year was an "incredible journey," Suni told TODAY host Hoda Kotb in a post-Trials interview.
"There were so many times where I thought about quitting and just giving up because I was so sick," she said. "But once I had those people around me who lifted me up and supported me and just made sure that I was good, I knew that this is something that I wanted."
Suni also told the New York Times that she’s a tougher competitor than she used to be.
"Whenever I’m talking to my coaches, I get really sad because I’m never going to be the same—[not] the same Suni, not the same athlete," she said. "And they’re like, ‘Good.'"
Suni will be competing again during the Paris Olympics, in the individual uneven bars and beam events. When chatting with Hoda and Savannah Guthrie after her bronze medal win, Suni kept it real, saying, "I'm so excited. I'm so happy I don't have to do floor routine or vault."
What’s going on with Suni, and how is her health now? Here’s what she’s shared.
What happened to Suni Lee?
In February 2023, Suni woke up with unexplained swelling that she attributed to her tough training schedule. At first, her ankles swelled—then her face, hands, and legs. “I just kept getting more swollen,” Suni shared in an interview with SELF.
Subsequently, the gymnast had to leave her NCAA gymnastics season at Auburn University early and put her training on pause for six months.
About a month after she first developed symptoms, she stopped training entirely, left Auburn, and moved back home.
“I was just rotting in my bed,” she told Sports Illustrated. “I couldn’t talk to anybody. I didn’t leave the house.”
What is incurable kidney disease?
Suni didn’t share an exact diagnosis with the public, but she did reveal that her condition has no cure. Her medical team also thinks her diagnosis may change as they learn more about what’s happening with her health, SELF reports. (The magazine also notes that her condition isn’t common.)
Her doctors later realized that Suni had two forms of kidney disease, according to Sports Illustrated.
How do you stop kidney disease from getting worse?
There are two main causes of kidney disease, according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA): diabetes and high blood pressure. With that, there are a few things that many people with kidney disease can do to stop the progression of the condition.
That includes managing your blood pressure, monitoring your blood glucose, eating a kidney-friendly diet, exercising regularly, and being cautious about taking OTC medications and supplements.
Suni first experienced symptoms in February 2023 and gained 40 pounds.
Suni first developed symptoms when she woke up one morning with swollen ankles, which she originally thought was due to her intense training. Her doctors originally thought Suni was having an allergic reaction, but the swelling didn’t go down.
“I think I gained, like, 40 pounds,” Suni said. "It affected my whole body and how I looked and how I was feeling."
In addition to the swelling, Suni experienced hot flashes, cold spells, headaches, cramping, constant pain, nausea, and lightheadedness. “I could not bend my legs the slightest. I couldn’t squeeze my fingers,” she recalled to SELF.
After Suni told her doctor that she was having trouble urinating, she underwent more tests and eventually had a biopsy of her kidneys. That led to her diagnosis.
Suni later discovered that kidney problems ran in her family. Her mom Yeev Thoj told the Times that her brother died of kidney failure at 45 and Thoj’s mother was “a little bit over 60” when she also died of kidney failure.
What are the symptoms of kidney disease?
Kidney disease is a broad term that can be used to talk about a range of illnesses, including type 1 and type 2 diabetes and lupus nephritis. Chronic kidney disease is when your kidneys are damaged and can’t filter blood the way they should, according to the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).
More than 35.5 million adults in the U.S. have chronic kidney disease, the NIDDK says. People with chronic kidney disease may not have any symptoms at first, per the NIDDK, but they can come on as the condition advances. Symptoms vary by condition, but they can include:
swelling (known as edema)
chest pain
dry skin
itching or numbness
feeling tired
headaches
peeing more than usual
peeing less than usual
loss of appetite
muscle cramps
nausea
shortness of breath
sleep problems
trouble concentrating
vomiting
weight loss
Can kidney disease be reversed?
Unfortunately, no, chronic kidney disease cannot be reversed. Kidney disease is usually progressive, meaning it gets worse over time, the NIDDK says. Damage to the kidneys causes scars and is permanent. However, following a treatment plan prescribed by your doctor and doing things like managing your blood pressure may help, per the NIDDK.
Suni thought she might never be able to do gymnastics again.
Suni said that she was understandably scared while doctors tried to work out a diagnosis. When she tried to train, she found that she couldn’t perform the way she normally did.
“I kept peeling off the bar. I couldn’t hold on,” Suni said. “My fingers were so swollen, and I couldn’t even do a normal kip cast to handstand on bars.”
She remembered thinking, “What if I’m never allowed to do gymnastics again or I can never make it to the Olympics again?”
That was especially stressful for Suni, who was working hard to provide for her family. “I need to provide for myself and my siblings,” she told the Times, noting that she had opened college savings accounts for her siblings and was frugal with any other money she had left.
Ultimately, Suni stopped competing with Auburn University to focus on her health, bidding an emotional farewell online.
“For my safety, the medical team did not clear me to train and compete over the last few weeks. I am blessed and thankful to be working with the best specialized medical team to treat and manage my diagnosis. My focus at this time is my health and recover,” Suni wrote at the time.
“I will not stop pursuing my dreams for a bid to Paris in 2024,” she added. “In fact, this experience has sharpened my vision for the future.”
She had to rework her training.
After her kidney diseases forced her to press pause, Suni had to take measures to work around her conditions.
"The kidney disease took me out for a couple of months," Suni told E! News in March 2024. "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."
Suni called her training "a learning process," adding that she and her team are "taking it day by day."
“My coaches have never had to deal with someone who has had two kidney diseases,” Suni told NBC at the Team USA Media Summit in April. “Obviously, I’m like, ‘Okay, I don’t know any other gymnasts that have two kidney diseases that have had to go through this.’"
Suni told The Times that the way she trains now is different from what it used to be. Now, she can’t do endless repetitions to get everything just right. Instead, she has to be more deliberate with everything she does.
Suni is currently in remission.
Suni nabbed a bronze medal on beam at the 2023 U.S. Championships, but declined an invitation to the world team selection camp in 2023 a few weeks later, per NBC Sports.
“I think my lowest point was after championships,” Suni told the outlet at the Team USA media summit. “I don't know. I pulled out of the world championship selection camp and I stopped doing gymnastics for four months.”
But things started to turn around for Suni in January 2024, when she got a phone call that changed everything. “It was just, like, a simple phone call,” she told NBC Olympics. “I can’t really talk about it, but it was a simple phone call. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I'm going to the gym tomorrow and I'm gonna be better than I ever was.’ And that was the day I was like, ‘Yep, this is what I want. And I'm gonna put my mind into it.’"
“That’s when she started saying, ‘I think they’re getting a handle on it,’ ” her coach Jess Graba told Sports Illustrated.
But things weren't fixed instantly: Suni still had to shift her mentality, she told reporters after winning bronze in the uneven bars final.
"It took me a lot longer to actually really start in the gym and really be committed because in the back of my head, I really thought that I was done and it wasn't even something that I wanted to do anymore. I was ready to move on with my life," she said. "I wanted to move across the country and everyone's like, 'What are you talking about? You can't make decisions when you're sad.' So I was like, 'Okay, you're right.'"
Suni is now on medication to help control her conditions, and they're now in remission. “We have it under control now,” she told CBS News at a Team USA media summit. “We know what to do and the right medication to take.”
Suni told the Times that it took time to get her medications right. At first, she had to deal with side effects like weight gain and exhaustion. “It wasn’t something like I can just take a pill and be better; I was going to have to deal with this my whole life,” she said.
Suni also had issues with weakened ligaments and tendons from taking a steroid medication. Now, she takes medicine that works for her every day to control her conditions.
Suni returned to Midwest Gymnastics to begin training again, crediting it with reviving her love of the sport. There, she felt like herself again, per the Times.
“I didn’t have to be the perfect Suni that everyone was staring at; I could just go there and be plain old Suni again,” she said. “And whoa, was it a relief.”
In April 2024, Suni shared that she was still modifying her routines so she didn't “peak too early,” ahead of the Games, per TODAY. But she was intent on coming back even stronger.
"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," she told the outlet. "So that gives me a little more comfort and knowing that anything that I put my mind to, I can accomplish."
Suni credits her team doctor with her recovery.
Suni’s health—and ability to compete—remained a question for much of the lead-up to the 2024 Games. But after she took her place alongside the rest of the United States gymnastics team in June, Suni gave props to her team’s doctor for helping her make it back to the mat, per a report from The Athletic.
When asked how she made it this far, Suni pointed to Marcia Faustin, MD, the co-head team physician for USA Gymnastics. Faustin likes to stay behind the scenes, according to the report, and felt the urge to make herself invisible at the attention.
“The joke on the team is I’m never embarrassed. Like ever,” Faustin shared with the outlet. “They’re always asking me, ‘Do you ever get embarrassed?’ Well, they found it.”
At first, Suni and Faustin were dealing with Suni's immediate symptoms. "It was incredibly, incredibly difficult," she told the outlet. "In the beginning, we weren’t even thinking about gymnastics. We were thinking about what her life could be."
Though she's based in California, Faustin stayed in constant contact with Suni's medical team and trainer throughout her journey, calling her a "warrior."
“She was constantly checking up on me, making sure I was okay,” Suni told reporters. “She reminded me of my worth because she knew I’d be so disappointed in myself if I gave up this dream. And look at where we are right now. We made it. We did it together.”
"What she’s come out of and what she’s doing just tells us we should never box humans in," Faustin added. "We should allow them to flourish and hold that hope for them."
Faustin was the same physician at the center of another Olympic medical emergency: In 2021 during the Tokyo Games, Simone Biles got the twisties, a dangerous condition that can block gymnasts' bodily awareness and even cause serious injury during competition.
She's close with her coach Jess Graba.
Another important figure in Suni's life? Her coach, Jess Graba. After winning bronze in the uneven bars, Suni shouted out Graba for being there throughout her journey.
"Having people that were there to uplift me and support me along the way was such a good feeling," she added. "I think that's such an important message to just lean on your people when you need them because you never know what can happen."
"My coach Jess has been amazing," she added. "He's basically like my dad at this point, and he basically told me every single time when I was out there that he knew I could do this. So [I was] really just putting my faith into others and just believing in myself."
After the competition, Graba told reporters that he had been "worried all year" about Suni's health. But he was "so proud" about the result.
"When she said she wanted to come back, I'm like, 'You sure? You have to understand that there's really only downside. People are only going to say that you got worse unless you win everything,'" Graba reflected. "But that's not how most of these athletes are, and that's not how I am either. I could care less about the medal. I could care less about everybody else's opinion about how she did. It's more about hers and mine."
Simone Biles encouraged her.
Faustin and Graba aren't the only supports Suni had along the way. Her teammate Simone gave her a pep talk during June's nationals competition, where tough fall caused Suni to have a "breakdown."
"In my head, I was already like, 'Okay, I’m done, this is it,'” Suni recalled. But Simone told her that she should continue competing for herself and her goals. "She told her that she can do hard things," the New York Times reported.
“I just know that she needed some encouragement and somebody to trust her gymnastics for her and to believe in her,” Simone told the publication.
Suni asked Simone to stand next to the uneven bars during her routine, which she did (and cheered for her along the way). That encouragement helped Suni get through the rest of the meet, per the outlet.
During the individual all-around, Suni said it was helpful to have her teammate with her.
“Having Simone here today definitely helped me a lot because we were both freaking out,” she told reporters afterwards. “And so it just felt nice to know that I wasn’t out there freaking out by myself.”
Suni worked on her mental health.
The kidney disease didn't just take a physical toll on Suni—it had devastating mental effects, too.
“I couldn’t even look at myself in the mirror,” Suni told Sports Illustrated in June. “I was just rotting in my bed. I couldn’t talk to anybody. I didn’t leave the house.”
There were times her motivation took a hit, per Self. Suni ultimately got an Australian Shepherd puppy named Bean for some emotional support, according to the mag.
Suni trained with Paris in mind.
Despite her health battle, Suni is optimistic about the future. The Minnesota native told Women’s Health at the Team USA Media Summit that she was focused on her training and doing "everything possible" to make the Paris team.
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“It feels really good to be able to just go out and to wake up in the morning and be able to go to practice,” she said. “My doctor told me that we would never thought that I would be here, so it feels really good to be able to be doing gymnastics."
Suni has reiterated that sentiment online, writing on Instagram last year that "this comeback was so much more than my return to elite gymnastics."
"It was me proving to myself that I can overcome hard things, and to hopefully inspire others to never let life’s setbacks stop you from going after your dreams," she wrote.
She's proud of her medals from Paris.
Suni wasn’t sure if she would make it back, so getting three new medals is a huge honor—one she fought for.
“I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, because I didn’t think that I could,” Suni told reporters afterwards.
When it came time for the individual all-arounds, Suni’s coaches told her if she owned the floor, she’d win a bronze medal—so she did just that.
“I did everything that I could,” she said. “I went out there, and I just told myself not to put any pressure on myself because I didn’t want to think about the past Olympics.”
Suni hopes to inspire others.
After winning bronze in the uneven bars final, Suni hopes others with chronic kidney disease can look to her in dark moments.
"The past couple of days, I've been flooded with messages from people saying they've had chronic illnesses and things that they've had to deal with," she told reporters afterwards. "So it's a really good feeling knowing that I can inspire others, especially knowing I've spent a lot of months being in my lowest."
Since she's been in remission, Suni has also showed some appreciation to an organization close to her heart: the American Kidney Fund.
“My experience with kidney disease has been challenging—and I’ve worked so hard to persevere in the face of a life-changing diagnosis to be able to represent my country in Paris this month,” Suni wrote in a July 11 Instagram post. “I know firsthand that kidney disease can happen at any age, and sometimes the cause of your disease isn’t clear-cut. But I want to encourage others to be informed about their kidney health and self-advocate for a treatment plan that can allow them to live their best life.”
Rooting for you, Suni!
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