“I’m just excited because I think it’ll be pretty cool having the skill being named,” said Lee in an exclusive interview with Olympics.com ahead of the Winter Cup 2024. Now, when a gymnast is fixated on having a routine named after her despite having won the Olympic all-around gold, the importance of the same speaks volumes. This would have cemented her legacy for the years to come. Thus, it was quite understandable why Suni Lee was hell-bent on achieving the same. But unfortunately, things didn’t turn out in the manner that Lee expected!

‘The Lee’, as she calls it, is a full twisting layout Jaeger on the uneven bars. Aiming to nail the move at the Winter Cup in February 2024, Lee failed miserably. She fell twice and ended up with a score of 11.800 on the bars. Unfortunately, this led to the US team not assigning Lee to the 2024 World Cup in Baku in March. While this was certainly a heartbreak, Lee chose to remain silent and focused on working on her Olympic goals. But, surprisingly she has revealed her side of the story now!

Just a few hours ago Lee took to her social media to explain her state of mind after being denied to Baku. Uploading a video on her TikTok, Lee mentioned how the incident broke her heart. She uploaded a reel lip-syncing to a voice playing in the background. It stated, “I am feeling like I want to die, and that this is complete torture, and I don’t know what I did to somebody to make me sit here and do this.”

Looking at her reactions, the gymnastics community decided to get involved. Taking to the comments section, a netizen asked Lee whether the decision to skip the Baku World Cup was a voluntary one or not. To this, Lee came up with a surprising reply. It turns out that she was even ready to pay her own expenses to appear in Baku! The Olympian stated, “I begged them and offered to pay for myself to go ahahahah.” Surely, this was a shocking and disheartening bit of news coming from Lee. 

But this setback did not deter her from attaining her Olympic goals. After her Tokyo triumph, Lee was termed as ‘unworthy.’ However, coming to Paris, Lee proved her worth again, clinching a bronze medal in the uneven bars with a score of 14.800. Thus, after looking at such a commanding performance, the decision to not send Lee to Baku becomes even more baffling. However, the US gymnasts’s authorities did give a clarification on the same. 

US Women’s Technical Lead explained the reason behind Suni Lee’s heartbreaking 2024 moment

After Lee not being allowed to compete in Baku, a swarm of criticism took place. With fans unable to wrap their heads around what exactly transpired, the US Women’s gymnastics team came up with a response. The technical lead of the team, Chellsie Memmel, made it obvious in 2024 why the team wouldn’t consider Lee for a trip to Baku. She cited Lee’s rankings back in 2024 as a solid reason. 

Memmel said, “If we’re sending someone just to do two events, who isn’t currently on the national team, they need to place high.” Now, owing to her inactivity due to her kidney complications, Lee slipped significantly in the rankings. She also had a not-so-good Winter Cup that only worsened her case. And this experience must have been Suni Lee’s most heartbreaking moment of 2024 by far. 

Reflecting on her Winter Cup debacle, a morose Lee opined back in 2024, “It obviously wasn’t what I wanted, but in all honesty, I think that it’s good that it happened here rather than somewhere else.” Thankfully for Lee, she just moved towards an upward trajectory from hereon, and did not carry her off form to Paris. She won one gold and two bronze in Paris Olympics.

Thus, standing tall amidst all the backlashes, Suni Lee has established herself as a dominant force in US women’s gymnastics time and again. Now, it will be interesting to see whether she can fulfill her desire by naming the full-twisting Jaeger on her name in the near future.