via Getty
TOKYO, JAPAN – AUGUST 01: Sunisa Lee of Team United States competes in the Women’s Uneven Bars Final on day nine of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Gymnastics Centre on August 01, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
via Getty
TOKYO, JAPAN – AUGUST 01: Sunisa Lee of Team United States competes in the Women’s Uneven Bars Final on day nine of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Gymnastics Centre on August 01, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)
The 2024 gymnastics season has kicked off for Team USA elites with the Winter Cup 2024, igniting tremendous excitement. Olympians including Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, and many more, have returned for the Paris 2024 Olympic year, setting the bar and expectations high. Suni Lee, who was out for most of 2023, will be making her season debut at the Winter Cup, and fans are eagerly anticipating her return and she’s set to bring forth a formidable potent skill in her arsenal.
Alongside her comeback, Suni Lee is on a mission this year to introduce her first eponymous skill in the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique, Code of Points. With that in mind, let’s dive into the intricate details of Suni Lee’s dangerous gymnastics move, ‘The Lee’.
The complexity behind Suni Lee’s ‘The Lee’
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Suni Lee has been teasing fans with a new element she’s working on called a full-twisting layout Jaeger on the uneven bars. If she successfully performs this talk of the town, the skill will be named after her and be known as ‘the Lee’. The move is quite challenging and involves swinging backward, then doing a forward somersault with a full twist, before catching the high bar again. In a post on X by USA Gymnastics, the federation announced that Suni Lee’s new element, ‘The Lee’ “has been awarded an H difficulty value by USA Gymnastics for domestic competition.”
The layout Jaeger with a full twist on uneven bars has been awarded an H difficulty value by USA Gymnastics for domestic competition.
Difficulty value for international competition will be awarded by FIG. pic.twitter.com/TiE737vuH4
— USA Gymnastics (@USAGym) February 24, 2024
Gymnastic elements are rated based on their difficulty, with ratings ranging from A to J, each corresponding to a specific D-value. A has a D-value of 0.1, B has a D-value of 0.2, and so on, up to J elements with a D-value of 1.0. H is one of the most challenging and is worth 0.8 points. So, how will this skill be officially named after her and added to the FIG’s Code of Points?
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How will the skill be added to the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique’s Code of Points?
Gymnasts who wish to add a new skill to the FIG’s Code of Points must first submit the idea for evaluation by the FIG Women’s Technical Committee (WTC). After the skill is approved by the WTC, the gymnast must successfully perform it at an eligible competition, such as the World Championships, Olympic Games, or Youth Olympic Games. Additionally, the skill must have at least a “C” difficulty rating, meaning it is of sufficient complexity to earn three-tenths. So getting ‘The Lee’ named after her, Suni Lee must perform it successfully at a FIG official competition.
Read more: Gymnastics Winter Cup 2024: Shane Wiskus, Yul Moldauer, and the Stars of Senior Men’s Day 1 Success
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With this in mind, Suni Lee and her coach are planning to compete on the uneven bars and balance beam at the Winter Cup competition in Louisville, Kentucky, to qualify for the World Cup in Baku in March, which is a leg in the FIG Apparatus World Cup 2024 series. Sharing the plan, Suni Lee has shared, “I’ve actually been working the skill for two years, so it’s taken me about two years to finally get consistent and catching it, but it’s never felt ready until now.” Will she be able to get the skill named in the Code of Points? Comment below!
