Olympic gymnastics individual all-around champion Suni Lee She wants to be part of a new history. Her name will remain on the sports point code forever.
The 20-year-old told Olympic.com on Thursday (February 15) that she will compete on the uneven bars and balance beam at the Winter Cup competition scheduled for February 24 in Louisville, Kentucky, and will next compete at the International He said he is keeping the tournament in mind. Month.
She hopes her performance in Kentucky will be good enough to qualify for the World Cup in Baku from March 7-10, where she can submit a new element to gymnastics' rulebook. There is.
If the Minneapolis native pulls off a full-twist layout Jaeger on the uneven bars, that element will be called “Lee.”
“I think it’s really cool to have a name for that skill, so I’m just excited,” Lee said.
Coach Jess Graba added: “The reason we do the Winter Cup is to go to Baku and get a name for that skill, because Suni really wants to get that out of the way. ” he added. Let's get that out of the way so there are no question marks heading into spring. ”
Lee began training in this element, which he first showed off to the world in a Jan. 23 Instagram post. Development continued until recently.
“I've actually been practicing this skill for two years, so it took me about two years to finally be able to catch it consistently,” Lee explained. “But until now, I didn't feel like I was ready.”
Pushing the limits of the uneven bars is nothing new for Lee and Graba. The pair said they had pondered other “crazy ideas” that could influence her already out-of-this-world horizontal bars routine, which won a bronze medal in the Olympic apparatus competition.
“We were looking for something cooler to do,” Graba said, adding that the full-twist Nabieva (Tkachev, with its toe-on layout) was an option, but the Jaeger was easier on students. He added that it fit into his routine. Construction becomes easier. “Basically, Suni and I go back and forth with different crazy ideas.”
The Winter Cup will be Lee's first competition since he withdrew from the U.S. World Team Selection Event last September due to a kidney-related health condition that forced a premature end to the NCAA season last March.
