The Queen.
Willpower, tenacity and resolve can solely start to explain Suni Lee’s path to Paris. She’s a real artist, and has lifted the game to new heights all through her profession. Along with her trademark magnificence and poise, distinctive grace, execution and magnificence, her presence on the competitors flooring is the essence of girls’s creative gymnastics.
This yr, the emotion introduced forth in her flooring efficiency additionally instructed us a lot about her journey, bringing us to tears the primary time we noticed it. The music alternative, “Eye of the Untold Her” by violinist Lindsey Stirling completely couldn’t have been a extra excellent backdrop for Suni’s story, and introduced the group on the 2024 Olympic Trials to their toes as she made her second Olympic dream come true.
Stirling herself solely instructed PEOPLE journal how Lee ended up selecting the music for her routine. “Again in January, I really reached out to Suni by way of Instagram to see if she was on the lookout for flooring routine music,” Stirling mentioned. “When she mentioned she was, I shared a hyperlink to my unreleased album. Exterior of my direct administration group, she was the fi rst individual to listen to my entire album. She wrote me again saying she was going to make use of ‘Eye of the Untold Her.’ ”
The violinist was additionally “surprised” by the announcers in Paris shouting out her identify earlier than Lee’s efficiency, which Stirling documented in an emotional response video on Instagram. “I watched Suni’s fl oor routine within the group throughout from my tour bus,” she mentioned. “My dancers and I stayed on the bus to cheer her on. As soon as she began performing I acquired tremendous emotional. Tears have been streaming down my face the entire time.”
Stirling additionally instructed PEOPLE she chalks up her response to being a longtime gymnastics fan and understanding Suni’s comeback from being sidelined from her kidney illness. “She is a warrior and he or she’s overcome a lot to get again to the Olympics,” she says. “Suni really embodies the message of what my music was written about and he or she carried out it so magically.” Hovering to Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021, Suni grew to become an in a single day sensation. She introduced new eyes and new pleasure to collegiate gymnastics in 2022 competing for Auburn, and elevating the extent and consciousness of the game all over the place.
Overcoming sickness in 2024 after a tumultuous 2023 and towards what appeared insurmountable odds, she’s now a two-time Olympic AllAround medalist, her legacy among the many finest ever secured eternally. When it got here time to resolve, Suni Lee was with out query, our unanimous alternative for our 50 Most Creative Class of 2024 Cowl.
