PARIS (Reuters) – U.S. gymnast Sunisa Lee, who was bedridden and seriously ill eight months ago, could not have imagined competing at the Paris Olympics — let alone win a medal.
Defying all odds, Lee made the U.S. Olympic team after struggling with illness and so far has won three medals in Paris: the team gold medal, bronze in the all-around and bronze on the asymmetric bars on Sunday.
She still has the chance to compete for one more medal in Paris on the balance beam final on Monday.
“I just have to keep reminding myself that I wasn’t even supposed to be here,” Lee said after winning her second consecutive Olympic bronze on the asymmetric bars.
“A couple months ago, we didn’t even think this was a possibility. So I’m happy with anything that I can get.”
The 21-year-old American was diagnosed last year with two serious kidney diseases and doctors told her she might not be able to compete again.
She was on bed rest for weeks and took five months off from gymnastics as she experienced the side effects of medications used to treat her symptoms.
Lee’s coach, Jess Graba, said it was “not normal” for a gymnast to win medals at the Olympics such a short time after having been bed-ridden and out of training for several months.
He explained Lee’s extraordinary ability to land on the podium in Paris by all the work she had done prior to her illness.
“We’ve been able to do a lot less this time around. Less than I’m comfortable with. Less than she’s comfortable with,” Graba said.
“We’re lucky that we did so much early in her career. So many mistakes, so many failures, so many things early that we got a lot of that out of the way.”
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber, Karen Braun, Chang-Ran Kim and Rory Carroll; editing by Pritha Sarkar)
