Long road back to Olympics not paved with gold for Suni Lee

The weight of expectations nearly knocked all-around Olympic gold medalist Suni Lee off the uneven bars.

Now she’s gotten back up and is ready to go for the gold once again at next week’s Summer Olympic games in Paris.

The journey for any gold medalist is never easy. Sports Illustrated reports that 7 out of 10 who walk away with the Olympics’ most coveted medal retire after winning.

Lee is part of the 27.7% who did not. In the three years since Tokyo, the road back has been filled with unexpected potholes. Some might even call them sink holes.

First there was her decision to compete at the collegiate level at Auburn University.

Even when she scored a perfect 10, people weren’t satisfied.

She says when she did achieve her sports highest score, people expected her to do that and when she didn’t, she failed.

“Everybody just thinks since you’re the gold medalist, you never make mistakes,” says Jess Graba, her longtime coach.

To make matters worse, the relationship with her teammates was frosty despite the campus’ hot summers and mild winters.

 “A lot of the girls weren’t the nicest to me,” she said to SI. “I just really felt like an outcast, almost. They didn’t treat me that well. I just knew that I couldn’t trust them.”

But it wasn’t college life that nearly doomed her Olympic career, it was her failing health. Doctors warned her life as a gymnast could be over.

“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,” she said to Olympics.com.

She acknowledges struggling with the uncertainty of a life changing disease. The toll on her mental health began to grow. She struggled to find the positive from an unfortunate situation.

“I think when you’re an athlete at an elite level and your dreams are put on hold because of an injury, I would say don’t discount your feelings. It can truly feel like the end of the world. Seek help. Talk to people. You’re not alone. Reach out to other athletes who can relate. It can feel like you’re living on an island, but I promise you’re not,” she told Forbes.

Her life took another turn, this time for the positive, when doctors said her condition had improved enough to a point her kidney disease could be controlled with medication.

She credits that, along with the family she describes as her village, for getting her back on track.

By most accounts, Lee is not favored to repeat her gold medal in the all-around. Simone Biles, who dropped out of the Olympics in Tokyo due to mental health concerns, will be the favorite this time. Lee says medaling isn’t necessarily her goal.

“I feel like people get it mixed up,” she says. “I don’t care about the money and the fame. All I wanted to do was go to the Olympics. I didn’t want anything that came after it. The only thing I wanted was the Olympics. So after that happened, when I was in the media at the time, it was really hard for me to deal with. I got so distracted, because I was like, ‘Whoa, SZA just followed me!’ It was just crazy stuff.”