Olympic All-around gold medalist Suni Lee placed fourth in the national championships Sunday, putting her squarely in contention to the make the U.S. Olympic team, reported USA Today.
The St. Paul, Minnesota native is making her comeback bid after being sidelined by her battle with kidney disease.
Lee credited encouragement from Simone Biles who won her 9th U.S. Championship this weekend for helping her overcome her doubts after stumbling on the vault.
“She knew that I needed help in the moment,” Lee said to NBC Sports. “She out of anyone understands, basically, what I did on vault. So she just came over to see if I was OK and basically just helped boost me up and get my confidence back up because, at that point, I was kind of thinking that this was over. So it was really nice to have her in my corner.”
Lee had gone off into the tunnel to gather her thoughts when Biles reached out to her. Biles then made it a point to stand nearby Lee during her next event on the uneven bars to scream encouragement.
“I knew exactly what was going through (Lee’s) head,” Biles said Sunday. “I dealt with that in Tokyo. So I just knew that she needed some encouragement and somebody to trust her gymnastics for her and to believe in her.”
Biles referenced the last Olympic games when she suffered the twisties during her vault, then withdrew out of concern for her own safety.
Lee ended up finishing fourth in the uneven bars and the balance beam.
“It helps me a lot, knowing that I can come back from that,” Lee said of her vault to USA Today. “I feel like I don’t even need to be perfect on beam and bars to get where I want to be. That’s just the reminder that I just have to go out there and do my normal.”
According to Sporting News, her best chance of being named to the Olympic team, while not guaranteed, is in the uneven bars and balance beam.
She remains optimistic, saying she hasn’t felt this good since dropping out of competition to deal with her health concerns.
“I feel so much better,” she said. “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.”
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