For gymnasts, the window to make something out of their career choice is relatively smaller than most other athletes. But that was only one part of Suni Lee’s challenges. In 2021, the Auburn star reached the top of the sport when she won the All-Around gold in Tokyo. But life came crashing right after her triumph. But Lee didn’t let her kidney disease dictate her life.

Instead, Sunisa took control of her life and dreams and made a comeback in Paris this year, which will surely go down as one of the greatest returns to the limelight of all time. But thankfully, she had some shoulders to lean on and an unwavering support system that helped Lee maintain composure during her rough patch. And now, as the 2x Olympic champ takes a break from gymnastics, she can’t help but feel grateful for all those who stood by her at every step.

In her recent Instagram story, Suni Lee recalled what a rollercoaster of a ride 2024 has been for her. From deciding to sign up for the US Classic to going on to win team gold in Paris at the 33rd Olympic Games, the 21-year-old has had a year to remember, to say the least. Noting the same, Lee wrote on her IG update, “Being emotional but sitting in my apt thinking about everything I’ve been thru this year and I am SO PROUD OF MYSELF for never giving up.” She went on to express her gratitude: “I’m so blessed to be able to live this amazing life with the most amazing people surrounded by me.”

However, her uplifted spirit might have something to do with the festive season that will soon be upon us. In her previous IG story, the Olympian shared how she’s been organizing her quaint apartment and how she’s hitting the stores to make sure she has everything to celebrate the upcoming holidays. “Fav time of the year,” confessed Lee, and seemingly, that has given her a reason to sit back and reflect on how far she’s come in her life.

Right after her seminal career point in Japan three years ago, Lee was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease, which the doctors claimed could not be cured. Naturally, the news came as a blow to the guts, and Suni quit her NCAA season mid-way through 2023 to recover her health. However, she was determined not to let the setback take away her elite career as well, and she returned to action in August 2023 for the US Classic. And she hasn’t looked back since, as the City of Love stood to witness in 2024. But it seems like Lee’s hunger for life has only grown and she’s not afraid to tread on uncharted waters.

Suni Lee isn’t afraid to expand her horizons

Shortly after her successful Paris campaign, Lee made heads turn again. This time for the New York Fashion Week. But that wasn’t her only business in NYC. Deciding to give herself a break from all the action, Lee is setting up home at the Big Apple in New York and was understandably eager to show up at one of the most coveted fashion shows on the planet. “I’m excited for a new chapter, and happy I get to do it in New York. I moved a day before hitting the ground running for NYFW,” she told Vogues while also mentioning how she’s looking forward to doing daily errands like getting coffee and buying groceries.

U.S. gymnast Suni Lee finally feels like she’s back on the right track.

The Tokyo 2020 all-around gold medallist spent the last nearly 12 months adjusting to the realities of a kidney-related health concern that ended her NCAA career at Auburn University early and prevented her from making a run at international competition months later.

Now, she has once again found a consistent rhythm to her training.

“I’ve been back in the gym every single day, eight hours a day, and it’s been going pretty well,” Lee told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview ahead of her 2024 competitive debut at the Winter Cup, Saturday (24 February) in Louisville, Kentucky.

“I’m in remission right now, so I’ve just been getting it under control and starting to work up into routines and getting ready for the season.”

In Louisville, Lee plans to compete on the uneven bars and balance beam only. Her goal there: earn a spot at the upcoming Baku World Cup competition where she can submit an original element she showed the world last month on her social media – a full twisting layout Jaeger catch-and-release move on the uneven bars – to be named in the sport’s rule book.

“I feel really prepared on beam,” Lee said. “Bars… I’m feeling pretty good. We’re kind of just going to get the skill named and then doing a basic bars set. I’m just doing Pak through [to the end of the routine].”

Lee’s confidence ahead of competition belies the struggles she’s faced.

The 20-year-old competed vault and balance beam in August 2023’s U.S. Classic and U.S. Championships, but withdrew from Team USA’s World Championships and Pan Am Games selection competition a month later, ending her season and beginning a difficult five-month period from which she and longtime coach Jess Graba say she’s only recently emerged.

“I had kind of a rough patch, and I was in and out of the gym for about five months,” Lee says.

“It was more just mental, but also trying to figure out my health and just be as healthy as possible coming into the new year because I knew I wanted to not have to worry about it as much, or, like, just make sure that I was going into remission and not going to have a little break out before a big meet.”

But without gymnastics as an outlet, Lee and Graba say times were tough.

“Being depressed,” says Graba in response to a question about how Lee filled her days when she couldn’t make it into practice.

“During that time, I was honestly not doing a lot of anything good for me, I was just kind of rotting in my bed and hoping that it would all go away,” adds Lee, later saying, “Things are definitely way better now. Of course, I still have to go to the doctors every couple of weeks. I just got an infusion. But they said that I’ve been progressing a lot.

“I’ve been able to wake up every single day and I’m perfectly fine,” she continued. “I also have been doing this for long enough now, I think, to know the right time to take my medicine, to be able to be perfect for in the morning.”