How Olympic gymnast Suni Lee battles her self-confidence – NBC Boston

Originally appeared on E! Online.

The toughest judge Suni Lee has ever faced on her way to the 2024 Olympics? Her own.

So the gymnast has tried to loosen her tight grip on herself.

“I’ve tried to take the pressure off myself, knowing that I’m doing this for myself,” Lee, who won gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, told E! News in June. “I’ve had to overcome so much in the last two years that I didn’t even think I would be here.”

Teaming up with Simone Biles, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles and Hezly Rivera was a dream for Lee, who battled a kidney problem last year. But for the 21-year-old, the goal was to make it to practice every day.

“That’s the most important thing for me,” she continued, “just focusing on what’s ahead of me and not on what’s yet to come, because otherwise I’ll get so nervous and probably have a mental breakdown.”

The countdown to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris has officially begun. Suni Lee, who won gold, silver and bronze for Team USA at the 2020 Tokyo Games, hopes to improve her game in France.

Focusing on the mental gymnastics of the sport is therefore an important part of her routine.

“I journal, I go to therapy,” the athlete added, “and that’s been the biggest game changer because there was a lot of self-doubt and a lot of pressure and a lot of not knowing where it all came from. So to be able to talk about it, to talk about it and know that it’s okay to not be okay is an amazing feeling.”

Even though every day isn’t easy, Lee is making progress towards her goals.

“There’s just so much stress that I don’t even want to go to practice,” she told E!. “But I know I have to go to practice and I’m going to curse myself at the end of the day if I don’t go.”

On the tougher days, she draws inspiration from how far she’s come. At the 2020 Games, when Biles withdrew with a case of the “twisties,” the team rallied to win silver.

“I was just really proud of the way we were able to finish the competition on team finals day,” Lee recalled. “When I think back on that, it still brings chills and tears to my eyes.”

And when her confidence needs a boost, she peeks into her closet, where her gold medal for the all-around is safely stored in a safe.

“I’ll look into it because it does help me,” said the Olympian, who noted that she doesn’t do it too often because it can also make her nervous and add pressure. “It’s crazy to think that that happened and I won the Olympics. It still hasn’t sunk in. I don’t know how three years later it still hasn’t happened.”

Suni Lee dominated the women’s all-around gymnastics on Thursday, winning the U.S. a gold medal for the fifth straight Olympic Games. Lee and Jade Carey handily carried the torch after teammate Simone Biles dropped out of the women’s all-around gymnastics earlier this week, finishing first and eighth overall.

Heading into Paris, Lee doesn’t need another medal to show what she’s accomplished (although she wouldn’t say no to a repeat of her victory.)

“I would give myself a medal for not giving up,” she noted. “There’s so much I could have given up and so many things that happened where I could have just put it aside and moved on with my life. But I wanted better for myself and I also wanted to be able to walk away from this Olympics or this team knowing that I gave it everything I had and I had no regrets.”

That means she’s not giving up on her health journey, including eczema. That’s why Lee has partnered with Eli Lilly and Company — Team USA’s health equity sponsor — to remind others with the skin condition that they’re not alone.

“When I had a flare-up and it was really noticeable, I would always try to cover it up with my makeup, which ended up making it worse,” she said. “But being able to talk about it and also work with Lilly has been a really great thing for me mentally, because I feel so much more confident in my own skin.”

And that deserves a gold medal.

The team of Simone Biles, Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera finished first in Subdivision 2 qualifying on Sunday.