Suni Lee reveals she is back to competing as kidney disease now ‘in remission’

Health updates: In a recent interview with Olympics, the 20-year-old Hmong American gymnast revealed she is currently “in remission” and has just begun to get her kidney issue “under control.”

“Things are definitely way better now,” she said, adding that she still has to go to the doctor “every couple of weeks” and that she had recently received an infusion. She added that her doctors informed her she has “been progressing a lot.”

What happened: Lee, who at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics became the first Asian American woman to win gold in the Olympic all-around, announced her retirement from her NCAA career at Auburn University in April 2023, citing a “non-gymnastics health-related issue” involving her kidneys.

About her condition: Lee revealed to Self in late 2023 that her illness was incurable and uncommon. Some of the symptoms she shared with the publication included the swelling of her body, including her face, hands and legs, and trouble urinating for two weeks before her testing.

“I just kept getting more swollen…and I think I gained, like, 40 pounds,” Lee recalled.

Although Lee revealed to Self the name of her diagnosis off the record, she chose to keep it private to the public as her medical team believes her diagnosis could change after further testing. Her doctors have also put her on a medication regimen to help manage her symptoms.

The road head: Lee told Olympics that she is now back to training “in the gym every single day, eight hours a day, and it’s been going pretty well.”

Lee has been preparing to make her 2024 competitive debut at the Winter Cup in Louisville, Kentucky, on Saturday, where she plans to compete on the uneven bars and balance beam.

Lee aims to use the Winter Cup to get a spot at the upcoming World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, in March, where she hopes to showcase the viral bar routine she shared on Instagram in January and have it codified in the gymnastics’ Code of Points as “The Lee.”