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LITTLE CANADA, Minnesota (WCCO) — Two-time Olympian and gold medal winner Suni Lee recently announced her return to gymnastics with an eye on the L.A. Summer Olympics in 2028, and Monday was her first day back training at the Twin Cities gym where it all began.
Lee said after the Paris games, she was a little confused about a return to the sport, but after much contemplation she’s sure she’s ready.
Hidden in an inconspicuous industrial park in Little Canada, Minnesota, Midwest Gymnastics now has attention from around the world.
Jess Graba was Lee’s first coach, beginning when the Olympian was 6 years old..
“The thing that stood out most is she liked to flip and have fun and she loved to do the sport,” Graba said. “Talent isn’t usually the differentiator in who can be good at the sport. Usually it’s the love of the sport.”
And from Tokyo to Paris, Lee proved that time and time again. But she says there’s more for her to prove.
“I kind of got my glow back,” Lee said. “I am confident as who I am as a person. I am excited to take that into training because I think I am a lot more confident.”
Lee could train anywhere, but there’s no place like Little Canada, a suburb of her hometown of St. Paul.
“I just can’t see myself anywhere else. They understand me and my work as an athlete, but also just as a human,” Lee said. “And I think that’s another thing that’s important because it’s one thing to be an athlete and coach, but to see me as a person outside of that is really cool.”
“Here she’s not Suni Lee. She’s Suni,” Graba said. “So my kids they can’t wait to have her back so they can play video games or something, just go hang out with her, help her unpack.”
Lee says the metro is truly home.
“All my family is here, too, and I love getting to come back and see all of the little kids and all of them running up to me,” she said. “It’s really good energy and makes me excited for what’s to come.”
She’s also home just in time for one of her oldest loves: the Minnesota State Fair.
“I go to the fair at least five times,” she said. “I had to come in before so I could lock in for like a month and then go to the state fair and do whatever I want there.”
And Lee has certainly proven she can do whatever she wants.
“I don’t think they understand how tough she is,” Graba said. “To do what she did with the kidney disease and to gut out Paris, she was at like 65-70% of what she could do. Just under that stress and scrutiny and pressure and just handled it all with grace. If you haven’t been through that and don’t know what it takes, you don’t realize how rare that is. It’s just, she’s just special.”
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