PARIS — Lower than a yr in the past, Sunisa Lee questioned if she was adequate to be an Olympian. Now she has three extra Olympic medals, with the prospect so as to add a fourth.
The one American competitor to qualify on the uneven bars (Simone Biles completed ninth; solely the highest eight make the occasion ultimate), Lee earned a bronze medal, masking her mouth in shock when the 14.800 rating flashed. She additionally has a group gold, all-around bronze and on Monday will go for extra within the stability beam ultimate.
Suni Lee wins an uneven bars bronze medal with a incredible routine within the ultimate! #ParisOlympics
📺 NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/0V1TGS25sp
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 4, 2024
Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour took the gold with a monster routine that had the Bercy Area alternating between gasping and cheering. She scored an enormous 15.700. China’s Qiui Qiyuan took silver simply 0.2 behind Nemour.
Competing final within the eight-person rotation, Lee alternated between working towards strikes off to the facet and watching her opponents. She did watch the whole thing of Nemour’s routine, and jumped up and down when she caught her dismount.
For Lee, it’s one more tangible piece of validation after a tough yr the place she questioned her worth as a gymnast. Identified with two kidney ailments in February of final yr, Lee handled the bodily unwanted side effects and struggled particularly with the psychological toll it took. It sapped her vitality, energy and confidence and, she has stated since, it took a village to assist restore it. Upon making the group at Trials, Lee thanked the group physician, Dr. Marcia Faustin, and has mentioned overtly how her coach, Jess Graba, delicately navigated her highway again.
GO DEEPER
Gold medalist Suni Lee is again on the Olympics. A group physician helped make it so
A part of that methodology was concentrating on the bars, one of many occasions Lee feels most at residence. She began tinkering with a brand new launch transfer — a full-twisting format Jaeger — hoping possibly she might catch it in competitors and have it named after her. Graba inspired her — “Something to get her off the bed within the morning,’’ he stated — and it helped her discover her manner again.
Lee, 21, didn’t carry out the talent right here in Paris, however she dazzled anyway. A swish gymnast, her launch strikes performed together and her magnificence are the ability of her routine. She carried out it expertly, taking solely a small step on her full-twisting double again tuck dismount.
Nevertheless it was Nemour who introduced the home down with an unbelievable routine.
The 17-year-old might need been one more French hero in these video games. She is dizzyingly stunning on bars, and like Simone Biles, her issue rating on that equipment is a lot increased than everybody else’s she successfully begins forward of the group. Her begin worth is 7.1, in comparison with Qiu’s 6.8 and Lee’s 6.4
However a protracted dispute between the French federation and her membership led her to choose to compete for Algeria, the place her father has citizenship. The argument is complicated, starting with the federation requiring Nemour to maneuver gyms for coaching and devolving into accusations of overtraining. Solely after the French minister of sport intervened did the federation launch Nemour and permit her to compete for Algeria, the place her father has a passport.
Nemour nailed her packed routine, and ended up in joyful tears, understanding it was mathematically not possible for anybody to catch her.
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(Photograph: Dan Mullan / Getty Photos)
