After Suni Lee received gold within the ladies’s gymnastics particular person all-around ultimate 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-fuelled, mat-flip sort of method).
Final 12 months, 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 blinding leotard and smooth press-on nails, naturally). On July 28, Lee certified for the all-around ultimate set for August 1—the place she confronted off in opposition to Simone Biles in a history-making occasion. And on July 30, Staff USA dominated, taking residence the gold within the ladies’s group ultimate.
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 informed SELF for an October cowl story final 12 months. “We didn’t know what was possible. We didn’t know what was wrong with me,” she mentioned. Under, we dive into the whole lot Lee has shared about her kidney illness, from the jarring warning indicators to how she’s feeling immediately.
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 informed SELF in a canopy story. She didn’t assume a lot of it till the next morning, when her face, arms, and legs—basically her complete physique—adopted swimsuit. “I just kept getting more swollen…and I think I gained, like, 40 pounds,” she recalled. The swelling instantly affected her coaching. “I kept peeling off the bar. I couldn’t hold on,” she mentioned. “My fingers were so swollen.”
At first, docs 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 have been at a loss for what was flawed. “It affected my whole body and how I looked and how I was feeling,” she mentioned.
Along with excessive swelling (she had generally even woken up together with her eyes swollen shut), Lee additionally skilled sizzling flashes, chilly spells, complications, and cramping. On the April Staff USA Media Summit, she shared that she lived with fixed ache, nausea, and lightheadedness. “I could not 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 miserable,” Lee candidly shared on the summit. “I couldn’t even look at myself in the mirror,” she informed Sports activities Illustrated in June. “I was just rotting in my bed. I couldn’t talk to anybody. I didn’t leave the house.”
She was finally recognized with two uncommon kidney situations.
Lee had undergone a number of medical assessments to no avail when USA Gymnastics group doctor Marcia Faustin requested if her docs had accomplished a routine urine check. 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 Occasions reviews). Her docs 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.
