Suni Lee Shares How Her Headspace is Different From Competing in College Versus at the Olympics (Exclusive)

“I see people comparing me to other athletes every single day,” Lee tells reporters about how users online say she didn’t deserve to win a gold medal in a media session during the Team USA Media Summit back in April. “It’s part of the reason why I stay off social media because in my head, I already don’t think that I should have won. So when you see it from other people and that many people saying the same thing over and over, it’s very hard mentally.”

“I’m still working on and learning to accept the fact that I won. Obviously I’m grateful because of everything that happened, but it’s just something that’s hard to get over,” she continues. “My Olympic experience was just different than I thought it was gonna be, so whenever I pictured it my head, I didn’t picture it to be that way. And now that I’m onto the next one, I am just so hard on myself.”

 

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Since Tokyo, Lee has been on a whirlwind journey filled with ups and downs. The Minnesota native packed her things to enroll at Auburn University to compete at the collegiate level and even made her way to the ballroom for a stint on Season 30 of Dancing with the Stars. But all came to a halt when she had to end her college career in April of last year due to a “non-gymnastics health related issue” that she later revealed was an incurable kidney disease.

“My lowest point was after championships,” Suni reveals. I had just I pulled out of the world championship selection camp and I stopped doing gymnastics for four months, and then when I got that call I was like, ‘yay, I’m going back into the gym.'”

 

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With her health condition in remission, a gold medal from the team finals in hand, and a dazzling routine ready to go, Suni is ready to defend her title when the All-Around Final takes place tomorrow, August 1st @ 12:30PM ET on NBC and Peacock.

As to how she prepares for big contests like the Olympics, Suni says it’s a two-hour process.

“I have to start getting ready two hours early and the person that’s braiding my hair only has one chance to braid my hair,” she reveals.

“And if they take more than that time — or if I have a bad meet — I’ll blame it on them,” she laughs.

To no surprise, the mindset is slightly different when competing on the Olympic stage versus the collegiate stage, as Suni told Celeb Secrets that things are a little more “tense” when the world is watching.

“I’d say in college I was a lot more like ‘whatever,'” the 21-year-old tells Celeb Secrets reporter Jozie Schroder. “I was just like, ‘this is so exciting.’ I was so happy to be there, but in Elite [gymnastics] I’m so tense and nervous before I’m going out and competing. I need everything to be perfect and I need to be on the right time.”

“I’m so glad I got to do it. I loved college. Auburn was so fun,” she continues. “Competing in college has been one of my dreams, so I’m glad I got to experience that and also be a college student. I wasn’t very big on school, but being at school was really fun and it made it all worth it. I was super grateful for all of it.”