by Adam Chau
Hometown hero Suni Lee, stood tall on Friday night at the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and made her bid to be on the team heading to Paris.
The night was marred partly by injuries. A day before the women’s trials began Olympic team contender Skye Blakely announced she would not compete after injuring her achilles.
Lee’s first rotation of the night was on vault right after teammate Kayla DiCello. She looked on with the rest of the crowd in the stands as DiCello sprinted towards the vault and was injured during her landing.
A stunned crowd and her teammates, including Lee, watched as DiCello needed help being carried off the vault area by two people.
Lee was visibly shaken before her turn at the vault, wiping tears from her eyes, trying to compose herself.
While she had a little bit of a slip on the vault, she was able to pull her twist around and landed with a 13.525. After the first rotation she was seventh place.
In her second rotation on the uneven bars, after waving to the enthusiastic crowd at Target Center, Lee soared from bar to bar, twisting and turning to the applause of the crowd.
After her dismount, received a score of 14.400 that pushed her into fourth place behind Biles, Chiles, and Leanne Wong (who led both of the first two rotations).
And then came the beam.
In the third rotation after Wong (who had a noticeable wobble in her routine) Suni Lee vaunted to the beam and started her routine, leaping high and rotating on the small plank.
Everything was looking great for Lee, but then during one of her landings, she lost her balance, almost falling off, teetering like a bottle at the edge of a table almost ready to fall off.
But with the skill of an Olympic Gold medalist, Lee fought her way back and regained her balance, much to the excitement and roars of applause from the more than 16,000 in attendance at Target Center, afterward being in second place right behind Biles.
In the final rotation for Lee, her routine on the floor was a great mix of both artistry and athletic ability, sticking her landings after her acrobatic flights from corner to corner.
The last routine of the day earned her third place behind Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles.
Afterwards, as she waited for her other teammates to compete, she waved and said thank you to a young group of girls above in the seats shouting her name and telling her how much they loved her.
For a day that started with surprise and trepidation, by the end, it seemed Lee was calm and enthusiastic and ready to take on the final test in the road to Paris.
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