Sunisa “Suni” Lee, 21, a star member of the United States’ gold medal-winning women’s gymnastics team, almost ditched her Olympic dreams due to the effects of an incurable kidney disease, but she’s battled her way back to the top. Learn more about Suni’s hope-inspiring story.*

First Signs and Symptoms

Suni first knew something was wrong when her hands and fingers started swelling so badly that she couldn’t hold on to the parallel bars, even to do a handstand. 

Her doctors thought at first that she was having an allergic reaction, but the swelling continued, and Suni gained nearly 40 pounds, mostly in fluid.

“It affected my whole body,” she said in an interview, “and how I looked and how I was feeling.”

A Promising Career Derailed

Further testing, including a kidney biopsy, led to Suni being diagnosed with an incurable kidney disease, which she has not publicly specified. 

Suni’s doctors at Auburn University refused to give her clearance to continue her gymnastics training in April of 2023, so she was forced to cut it short. Her symptoms, combined with medication complications, also resulted in her having to withdraw from the world championship team that September.

“There were so many times when I thought about quitting and just giving up because I was so sick,” she shared. “But once I had those people around me who lifted me up and supported me and just made sure that I was good, I knew that this is something I wanted.”

Fighting Her Way Back

Since she couldn’t train right away, Suni focused on supporting her health through rest, self-care, and sticking to her medication regimen through multiple adjustments by her doctors.

Finally, in January 2024, she received the call that she could start training again. She had to start slowly, and take small steps to regain her strength and her skills without injury, but focusing her sights on qualifying for the 2024 Olympics kept her steady and determined through good training days and bad ones.

Teamwork and Triumph 

“We have it under control now,” Suni said confidently as the Olympics approached, though her coach admitted that the doctors are “still monkeying with the medication to try to get it so she reacts the same way each day.”

Despite multiple challenges, Suni qualified for the 2024 Olympic U.S. women’s gymnastics team, and traveled to Paris to compete. Refusing to be defined by kidney disease, Suni won the bronze medal in the women’s individual all-around, bronze in the women’s uneven bars, and helped her team win gold in the team all-around.  

*Shultz, C. L. (2024, July 29). Everything Suni Lee Has Said About Her Incurable Kidney Disease. People Magazine. https://people.com/everything-suni-lee-has-said-about-her-incurable-kidney-disease-8685426 

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