“Kon did that [satisfied face emoji].” The X-handle of NCAA Gymnastics had a special way to celebrate Konnor McClain’s achievement on March 7. The LSU Tigers’ gymnast chose the senior night to drop her season high on the uneven bars event. Her score was 9.975, 0.025 shy of a perfect ten. Thus the NCAA Gymnastics knew that Konnor “did that” and what needed to be done. Moreover, Konnor showed how it should be done! Four years after her tragic loss, such an achievement could only earn flowers for her. NCAA Gymnastics was among those satisfied fans of hers. But what happened to her four years ago? 

Four years ago, Konnor McClain’s world shattered. In 2021, she lost her father, Marc McClain—the man who had been her rock, her biggest supporter, her guiding light. His sudden passing left a hole in her heart, one that no medal or score could ever fill. She was just a teenager, a rising star in gymnastics, with dreams of Olympic glory. But grief doesn’t care about dreams. It crashes in like a storm, making even the things you love feel heavy. But amid that storm, Konnor refused to let the darkness define her.

In 2021, Konnor had someone with her advising her to take the right path. Hold on. We’ll get back to this story later. However, what was the result four years ago? The Nevada native kept training, kept pushing, and kept fighting—not just for herself but for the father who had believed in her every step of the way. And on March 7, 2024, under the bright lights of LSU’s Senior Night, she soared. Four years after her greatest heartbreak, Konnor McClain didn’t just perform—she honored her journey, her pain, and her resilience. And somewhere, somehow, her father was watching, proud as ever. But the story would’ve not reached this pinnacle if there had not been one Suni Lee.

Yes. The Tokyo Olympics women’s floor champion had been a guiding light for Konnor. In her interaction with Olympics.com in 2022, Suni admitted this part of the story. She said, “She had reached out to me and asked me how did I stay motivated when my dad had his accident? Obviously, they’re two very different things because my dad obviously didn’t pass away, but I kind of just told her, ‘Remember your ‘why’’.’  The situations genuinely differed. 

In August 2019, Suni Lee’s world turned upside down. Her father, John Lee, suffered a devastating fall that left him paralyzed. In an instant, the man who had always been her pillar of strength was the one in need of support. The timing couldn’t have been worse—Suni had the U.S. Championships just around the corner. But how do you focus on routines and medals when the person who shaped your dreams is fighting a battle of his own?

The weight of it all crushed her. She lost her motivation, her drive, and even her love for gymnastics. “It kind of took me a long time to get back into the groove of things,” she later admitted to Olympics.com. “I was very unmotivated. “I didn’t want to go to the gym, I didn’t care about the Olympics, and I just wanted to be done with gymnastics completely. It felt like there was a part of me that was missing.”

So when Konnor McClain faced her own heartbreak in December 2021, Suni understood that pain in a way few could. She didn’t offer empty words—she gave her something real: “Rebuild and refocus.” But moving forward wasn’t simple. Grief doesn’t just fade. It lingers, it weighs you down, and it makes every step forward feel impossible. Yet, both Suni and Konnor knew that somehow, somehow, they had to keep going. This common realization made the job for Konnor. 

In her interaction with Olympics.com in 2022, McClain said, “She [Suni Lee] was like, ‘Yes, you can.’ She was like, ‘I felt the same way, too, at one point.’” Subsequently, the inner mojo led the teenager to say, “I was like, ‘OK, then I got it.’ Like, if Suni says it, then I can do it.” And she did, not just once, but again and again. The evidence? Remember her comeback in this ongoing college gymnastics season after what she had faced last year before the Olympics gymnastics trial? 

Konnor McClain knows how to stand up in the clutch moments 

A simple floor exercise in warm-ups—something routine—can change everything in an instant. No one knows that better than Konnor McClain. She had already endured more than most. From 2020 to 2022, she had fought to stand tall again after losing her father, forcing herself to move forward even when grief weighed her down. But in 2024, just as she was reaching for her lifelong dream, hope began slipping through her fingers once more.

The U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials were just around the corner. Konnor was proving herself again, standing on the podium alongside legends like Suni Lee and Simone Biles at the Core Hydration Classic, claiming third place in the balance beam routine. The Olympics were within reach. But then fate struck another cruel blow.

A torn Achilles—one of the worst injuries a gymnast can suffer. In an instant, Connor went from soaring through the air to sitting in a wheelchair, watching her Olympic dreams shatter. The Paris Games were no longer an option. The years of sacrifice, the endless hours in the gym, the fight to overcome heartbreak—it all seemed to slip away. Yet she rose again. 

After May last year, Konnor McClain showed up in the LSU Tigers gymnastics season opener this year. Against the gymnastics battle against Iowa State on January 4, she dropped 9.800 in the anchor leg of uneven bars. However, her performance on the balance beam was more eye-catching, coming with a score of 9.825. That’s Konnor McClain for you—a true champion on or off the mat!