After Suni Lee received gold within the girls’s gymnastics particular person all-around remaining on the Tokyo Olympics, the Paris Video games felt like a pure subsequent step—a shoo-in, even—till a sudden bout of painful and distressing signs turned her world upside-down (and never within the adrenaline-fueled, mat-flip type of method).
Final yr, the now 21-year-old gymnast was recognized with two uncommon kidney illnesses, which sidelined her coaching and rocked her bodily and psychological well being for months. Since then, Lee has shared snippets of her well being journey, and on June 30, she certified for the Paris Video games—the place she’s already crushing her routines (in a dazzling leotard and glossy press-on nails, naturally). On July 28, Lee certified for the all-around remaining set for August 1—the place she’ll face off in opposition to Simone Biles in a history-making occasion. And on July 30, Workforce USA dominated, taking dwelling the gold within the girls’s group remaining.
At her lowest level, although, Lee feared that competing in gymnastics ever once more—not to mention incomes a medal at one other Olympics—could be unimaginable, she advised SELF for an October cowl story final yr. “We didn’t know what was doable. We didn’t know what was incorrect with me,” she mentioned. Under, we dive into every little thing Lee has shared about her kidney illness, from the jarring warning indicators to how she’s feeling in the present day.
Lee’s first signs appeared seemingly in a single day.
In February 2023, Lee awakened with swollen ankles and rapidly blamed her intense coaching routine, she beforehand advised SELF in a cowl story. She didn’t suppose a lot of it till the next morning, when her face, palms, and legs—primarily her entire physique—adopted go well with. “I simply stored getting extra swollen…and I feel I gained, like, 40 kilos,” she recalled. The swelling instantly affected her coaching. “I stored peeling off the bar. I couldn’t maintain on,” she mentioned. “My fingers had been so swollen.”
At first, medical doctors thought Lee was experiencing an allergic response, however as her signs progressed over two weeks, Lee knew that was unlikely. In March 2023, she needed to sit out of an NCAA meet—at this level she was competing as a scholar with Auburn College’s gymnastics group—and all of the whereas she and her medical suppliers had been at a loss for what was incorrect. “It affected my entire physique and the way I regarded and the way I used to be feeling,” she mentioned.
Along with excessive swelling (she had generally even woken up together with her eyes swollen shut), Lee additionally skilled scorching flashes, chilly spells, complications, and cramping. On the April Workforce USA Media Summit, she shared that she lived with fixed ache, nausea, and lightheadedness. “I couldn’t bend my legs the slightest. I couldn’t squeeze my fingers,” she mentioned.
This all took a psychological toll too. That point of her life was “very, very depressing,” Lee candidly shared on the summit. “I couldn’t even have a look at myself within the mirror,” she advised Sports activities Illustrated in June. “I used to be simply rotting in my mattress. I couldn’t discuss to anyone. I didn’t depart the home.”
She was finally recognized with two uncommon kidney situations.
Lee had undergone a number of medical checks to no avail when USA Gymnastics group doctor Marcia Faustin requested if her medical doctors had accomplished a routine urine take a look at. Lee hadn’t, and admitted that she had been having issue peeing for 2 weeks—a crimson flag that pointed to kidney issues (which runs in her household, one thing that Lee hadn’t recognized earlier on, The New York Occasions experiences). Her medical doctors ran extra labs, and she or he was lastly referred to a specialist who advisable a biopsy of her kidney tissue, which might decide if it had indicators of injury or illness.
