Suni Lee estimates her timetable for Olympics decision: Could decide whether to return or not in ‘a couple more months’
While she remains undecided on whether she's going to try to make a run at a third Olympics appearance, Lee offered some insight into the timetable for her decision on Monday on the Today Show.
Auburn’s Suni Lee figures she will wait just a few more months before deciding whether she wants to try for a spot at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
Lee appeared on the Today Show on Monday and, while she remains undecided on whether or not she’s going to try to compete for a spot at the Olympics next cycle, she did offer an idea on the timetable for her decision.
She was asked what would go into that decision for her:
“I think it’s just a matter of where my mental health is, and also, like, this Olympics will hopefully, if I come back, I think it really would have to be just for me,” Lee explained. Watch the full interview here. “I don’t want to do it for anybody else and have that pressure on me. I think last Olympics I put so much pressure on myself because I was the reigning Olympic champion. So now I’m like, ‘Oh, I just want to enjoy it.’
“Like, it would be my potential last one if I did do it, so I just kind of want to see how my body feels and I’ll probably give myself like — I don’t know — a couple more months to decide. But we’ll see.”
Lee has won medals at the last two Summer Olympics, winning all-around gold, team silver and bronze bars at the Tokyo Olympics in summer 2021 before arriving at Auburn — then at the Paris Olympics in summer 2024 winning team gold, all-around bronze and bars bronze after her Auburn career ended.
By winning team gold in Paris, she and the rest of Team USA redeemed their silver in Tokyo, so, as she says, there’s little left for her to feel she owes Team USA or anyone else.
There’s been speculation that Team USA could use some of the veterans back from the last two Olympics in Los Angeles, with the perception being that few younger stars have risen up to take the reins from them as of yet. Indeed: Yesterday at the Winter Cup in Louisville, Ky., Hezly Rivera from the Paris Olympics team dominated the podium, winning the all-around, beam and floor titles while finishing runner-up on bars.
But regardless of whether the U.S. could use Lee, or Simone Biles or any of the other established gold medalists, it’s their own decision as to whether they want to try to make another run at it.
The Today Show hosts asked Lee if it bothers her when people ask whether she’s going to go to the Olympics again:
“I think it’s fine. But I wish that people would realize how much work it takes to get there,” Lee said. “I think a lot of people just think that we only go to the Olympics, and I’m like, ‘No, guys. We have this entire process.’ And they’re like, ‘Aren’t you guaranteed it?’ And I’m like, ‘Nope, I have to go through the whole qualification process.’”
To make the Los Angeles Olympics team, Lee would have to perform well enough at the 2028 U.S. Team Trials. That would be in June 2028. To qualify for that, she’d have to do well enough at the U.S. Championships in May 2028, and to be there, she’d have to do well enough at a qualifier event like the Winter Cup, American Classic or U.S. Classic earlier in spring 2028.
For now, Lee talked to the Today Show hosts about watching the Winter Olympics.
“It makes me so nervous,” she said, of watching the Olympics rather than competing in them. “Also just like seeing all of them and knowing that you’re at the biggest stage in your life, it’s just such an amazing accomplishment. I mean, it makes me emotional watching a lot of it because I’m like, ‘I know exactly how you’re feeling and the pressure of everything.’ So I just feel so proud of all of them. So many amazing golds, so many amazing medals coming home, and I think it’s a really great start going into L.A. 2028.”
Lee appeared on the Today Show on the same day as her friend Chloe Kim, Team USA snowboarder, and the two got to hang out in the green room at the show. Kim won silver in the women’s halfpipe at the recently concluded Winter Olympics. Lee also said she enjoyed waching women’s singles figure skating champion Alysa Liu.
“I would say I probably paid the most attention to, of course, my friends, Chloe (Kim) — and then also I’m a really big fan of Alysa Liu. I think she’s so cool,” Lee smiled. “And they both are just such great representation for Asian women in sports and it’s just really cool to see.”