In a recent interview with ESPN, gymnast Suni Lee admitted she experienced imposter syndrome after winning a gold medal at the Olympics.
“I feel like after the Olympics, there’s just been so much doubt in like, ‘Oh, she shouldn’t have won Olympics, blah, blah, blah,’ and it really hits my soul,” Lee, told ESPN.
Lee won a gold medal in the women’s gymnastics all-around event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Her teammate Simone Biles, who was a heavy favorite to win the medal, had withdrawn from the competition earlier that week to take care of her mental health.
After the Olympics, Lee announced that she would compete in collegiate gymnastics at Auburn University. A few weeks into training at Auburn, she told ESPN she still couldn’t shake the feeling that she didn’t deserve to win her gold medal.
“Like impostor syndrome,” she said. “That’s exactly what I have. And it’s very hard. It was very hard for me to motivate myself the first couple of weeks here because it was like I didn’t want to do gymnastics, I hated it.”
LATEST STORIES
Lee also experienced anxiety attacks. She said it was difficult to concentrate while fans screamed her name, asking for photos and autographs.
Still, Lee’s freshman year at Auburn has gotten off to a very successful start. She earned her first perfect 10 during the first week of February for her performance on bars. According to Sports Illustrated, it was the sixth-ever perfect 10 in Auburn program history. She also won the all-around that meet.
Since then, Lee has earned more perfect 10s. She was named SEC Gymnast of the Week in February, Yahoo News reports.
AsAmNews has Asian America in its heart. We’re an all-volunteer effort of dedicated staff and interns. Check out our new Instagram account. Go to our Twitter feed and Facebook page for more content. Please consider interning, joining our staff, or submitting a story, or making a contribution.
