After Suni Lee received gold within the ladies’s gymnastics particular person all-around closing 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 means).
Final yr, the now 21-year-old gymnast was recognized with two uncommon kidney ailments, 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 smooth press-on nails, naturally). On July 28, Lee certified for the all-around closing set for August 1—the place she’ll face off towards Simone Biles in a history-making occasion. And on July 30, Crew USA dominated, taking residence the gold within the ladies’s group closing.
At her lowest level, although, Lee feared that competing in gymnastics ever once more—not to mention incomes a medal at one other Olympics—can be not possible, she instructed SELF for an October cowl story final yr. “We didn’t know what was doable. We didn’t know what was mistaken with me,” she mentioned. Beneath, we dive into all the things Lee has shared about her kidney illness, from the jarring warning indicators to how she’s feeling as we speak.
Lee’s first signs appeared seemingly in a single day.
In February 2023, Lee awakened with swollen ankles and shortly blamed her intense coaching routine, she beforehand instructed SELF in a cowl story. She didn’t assume a lot of it till the next morning, when her face, palms, and legs—basically her complete physique—adopted swimsuit. “I simply saved getting extra swollen…and I believe I gained, like, 40 kilos,” she recalled. The swelling instantly affected her coaching. “I saved 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 pupil with Auburn College’s gymnastics group—and all of the whereas she and her medical suppliers had been at a loss for what was mistaken. “It affected my complete physique and the way I regarded and the way I used to be feeling,” she mentioned.
Along with excessive swelling (she had typically even woken up together with her eyes swollen shut), Lee additionally skilled sizzling flashes, chilly spells, complications, and cramping. On the April Crew 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 take a look at myself within the mirror,” she instructed 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 in the end recognized with two uncommon kidney circumstances.
Lee had undergone a number of medical assessments 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 pink flag that pointed to kidney issues (which runs in her household, one thing that Lee hadn’t identified earlier on, The New York Instances studies). Her medical doctors ran extra labs, and he or she 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.
