Sunny Lee goes to the Olympics in Paris, however she virtually ended her gymnastics profession after being identified with two varieties of kidney illness.
“There have been so many instances once I thought of quitting and simply giving up as a result of I used to be so sick and it was so arduous to remain motivated watching everybody get higher,” Lee, 21, mentioned in an interview yu right this moment on Monday, July 1. “And I simply can’t even return to the fitness center and I am always doubting myself.”
Whereas Lee was insecure, she had a gaggle of people that “lifted” and “supported” her. Did she need to take part within the Olympic Video games.
“We did not suppose I would be right here,” she added. “So to undergo all of those occasions and … all the things that we have needed to undergo this week to get to the place we at the moment are, it is simply been such a troublesome, unimaginable journey.”
Lee shared that she felt “completely loopy” to be touring together with her to Paris for the 2024 Olympics. Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezli Rivera.
In 2023, Lee introduced that she was taking a break from gymnastics to give attention to her well being.
“I have been coping with a non-gymnastic well being subject associated to my kidneys. For my security, the medical staff has stored me from coaching and competing for the previous few weeks,” she wrote on the time through X. “I’m blessed and grateful to be working with one of the best specialised medical staff to deal with and handle my analysis. Proper now, my focus is on my well being and restoration.”
Lee later came upon she was battling two types of kidney illness. Whereas contemplating a return to gymnastics, Lee needed to modify her coaching to accommodate her situation as she struggled with signs together with swelling, cramps, complications, scorching flashes and colds.
“My coaches have by no means needed to cope with somebody who had two kidney illnesses,” Lee mentioned on the Group USA media summit in April. “And clearly I am like, ‘Okay, I do not know of some other gymnast with two kidney illnesses who’s needed to undergo this.’ So it is all a studying course of. And we take it daily.”
On the Group USA summit, Lee revealed she is in remission and dealing to get again to the extent she was at through the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the place she walked away with gold, silver and bronze medals.
“I say, ‘I am already a lot better than I used to be on the final Olympics.’ And I did not even suppose that I may get higher than that,” she thinks. “So it offers me slightly extra consolation and understanding that something I set my thoughts to, I can accomplish.”