Suni Lee put one question to rest last week. The Auburn gymnast, who won the Olympic gold medal in the all-around before starting her college career, announced she will leave the Tigers after this season so she can pursue a spot on the 2024 Olympic team.
That declaration, however, opened up a whole new batch of questions. The St. Paul native became the first Olympic all-around champion to compete in NCAA gymnastics following her three-medal performance at the Tokyo Games in 2021. Now, she hopes to return to the Olympics after competing in college — a task with no precedent, and no clear formula to get there.
"It's like you're trying to build the airplane as you're flying it,'' Auburn coach Jeff Graba said. "How do we do this? That's the million-dollar question.''
Graba and his twin brother, Jess, who shepherded Lee from tiny prodigy to Olympic champion, will be charting Lee's path toward the Paris Games. Her sophomore season at Auburn begins in January. Once it ends, Lee, 19, will dive right back into elite-level training at Midwest Gymnastics Center in Little Canada, with the goal of making the U.S. team for the world championships next fall.
For her to thrive in both realms, the Grabas will have to carefully manage Lee's routines and health. A handful of gymnasts — including Lee's Tokyo Olympic teammates Jade Carey and Jordan Chiles — made this year's world championships team after their initial college seasons, showing what is possible.
While it's exciting to be setting a new course for women's gymnastics, Lee and her coaches are feeling some pressure, too.
"I like the challenge,'' Jess Graba said. "But it's stressful. This has not been done before. And Suni is the [Olympic all-around] gold medalist, so the pressure is a touch higher.
"Our focus now is on making sure she has a really good NCAA season. It will be a tricky thing for all of us, to train in a way that sets Suni up for success right after the [college] season. But we're super excited.''