It's full steam ahead for St. Paul native and two-time Olympic gold medalist Suni Lee who's training for her third Olympics.
Lee, speaking to WCCO Radio's Adam Carter on Monday, says that making a comeback has been on her mind ever since falling from the balance beam during the Paris Olympics in 2024.
She is the 2020 Olympic all-around gold medalist, winning that gold when pre-Olympic favorite and USA teammate Simon Biles pulled out of the competition. She is also the 2020 uneven bars bronze medalist, and the 2024 Olympic all-around and uneven bars bronze medalist.
The 2028 games are back in the U.S. but Lee says the fact that it is the Los Angeles Games really didn't play a factor into whether or not she'd make it back to the Games.
"Honestly I haven't thought much about that," Lee said Monday. "I think I always just knew that I wanted to come back. Also it'd be really cool to come back for a third Olympics. But yeah, it'd be really cool to have it in the home soil and just be able to win another gold medal, a couple gold medals, with the girls."
Lee also said that she started thinking about another Olympics the moment she fell off the balance beam during the Paris Olympics.
"Second I got up I walked up to my coach and I was like, 'damn I have to come back, and he laughed at me," Lee recalled. "And he was like, I knew you were gonna say that so we just kept it on the low for the past two years."
Lee says she's been training the past few weeks and is already seeing results.
"My skills are coming back, but I think moving forward this time I really just want to build that confidence and trust that I have in myself," Lee explained. "And I just want to be able to prove that I'm able to do this."
The U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials are scheduled for June 2028 in Louisville, which will decide who earns a spot on Team USA for the Los Angeles Games.
Lee was in Minnesota to serve as a co-host of the Minnesota Sports and Events inaugural Golf Invitational at White Bear Lake Yacht Club. Former Viking Adam Thielen was the other co-host. While Lee didn't play golf, she did ride around to spend time with each of the groups that did play. She told Carter that she'd stick to gymnastics instead of taking up golf. At least for now.
