Defending all-around Olympic gold medalist Suni Lee will have a chance to defend her title finishing qualifying with a second place of 56.132. She trails teammate Simone Biles’ 59.566 point total.
Only two gymnasts from each team can qualify for the all-around final. Lee battled teammate Jordan Chiles for the last spot heading into the final rotation which happened to be uneven bars – Lee’s specialty.
Lee registered a score of 14.866 — six-tenths better than Chiles — to earn her spot in the final.
Despite her success at the Tokyo Games in 2021, Lee’s opportunity to compete was not guaranteed. She was diagnosed with an incurable kidney disease in 2023 and shocked fans when she announced her retirement from college gymnastics. She was competing at Auburn University at the time.
Her health scare began in Feb. 2023 when she experienced abnormal swelling all over her body — in her ankles, face, hands, and legs. After several months of tests, doctors discovered she had two forms of the disease.
“My doctor was telling me he didn’t think I’d be able to do gymnastics ever again,” Lee said. “So to even be here is an accomplishment in itself. And I’m super proud of myself.”
Lee’s chronic kidney disease is in remission now and said, “It feels absolutely insane” to have even made the team.
“There were so many times where I thought about quitting and just giving up because I was so sick, and it was just so hard to stay motivated, watching everybody get better, and I’m just like I can’t even get back into the gym and constantly doubting myself,” the 21-year-old recalled.
“We didn’t think I would be here. So getting through all of those events and … everything that we had to go through this week to get to where we are right now, it was just such a hard, incredible journey.”
Individual All-Around will take place on Thursday, August 1, at 12:15 p.m. ET on Peacock and will re-air in primetime at 7 p.m. CT.
As for Lee’s teammate, Jade Carey, the start of her Olympic competition has been quite the opposite. The reigning Olympic floor champion had a scary moment in the last pass of her routine when she bailed out of her final skill.
Instead of performing a punch front through to double back, she only performed a back tuck. The momentum from the balk sent her flying off the floor.
The fall meant Carey wouldn’t be able to defend her gold medal from the Tokyo Games. After the competition concluded, Carey spoke exclusively with Scott Bregman from Olympics.com, where she shared she has been fighting an illness.
“I just have not been feeling well the past few days and haven’t been able to eat or anything,” Carey said. “I had, like, no energy today and didn’t really have a sense of what was going on in my head. So, I just kind of wanted people to know that so, they know that there’s actually something wrong.”
Carey’s floor score was 10.633 but she absolutely nailed her vault with a score of 14.43 helping Team USA secure its spot in the team all-around finals.
The women’s team final is on Tuesday, July 30 at 12:15 p.m. ET on Peacock while individual finals will be held between Thursday, Aug. 1, and Monday, Aug. 5.
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