T he Team USA women continued their streak of standing on the podium in every event in Paris so far.
In the uneven bars final, Sunisa Lee, the U.S.’s only entry, repeated as bronze medalist, earning her sixth Olympic medal, and third in Paris.
China’s Qiu Qiyuan, who finished seventh in the all-around competition in Paris, laid down the gauntlet with a score of 15.5 with a routine that featured challenging release moves and a 7.2 difficulty score. But she was quickly outscored by Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour, who earned 15.7 with a routine of similar difficulty, but impressed the judges—and Lee, who was jumping up and down with every successful release move she executed—enough to gain 0.2 more points for execution. Nemour won gold and Qiyuan the silver.
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“It just looks like a feather flying over the bars; she’s just so beautiful to watch,” Lee said of Nemour’s skills on the uneven bars. “Everything goes so fast and it’s so smooth and I’m in awe every single time. She does so much—you guys don’t even see but she does a lot of repetitions and she’s super, super good.”
It’s the fifth day of the gymnastics competition for the women, and a week after the qualification round kicked off events in Paris, so the strain showed—two of the eight gymnasts—Zhang Yihan of China and Rebecca Downie of Great Britain, fell off the bars during their routines. The gold medalist from Tokyo, Belgium’s Nina Derwael, finished just off the podium in fourth.
For Lee, the bronze medal, which she said was “super pretty,” and the two medals she’s earned so far in Paris mean the most to her. After being told she wouldn’t be able to go gymnastics again following a diagnosis of two kidney conditions, Lee said “I didn’t even think I’d make it this far. At this Games," she said. “I’m learning to give myself so much grace. Last time around, you could tell if I was disappointed with a turn or something like that, but this time, I’m like, ‘We weren’t even supposed to be here.’ So everything that I’m doing now I’m like, ‘Wow, this is just so much better than last time, and gymnastics is a lot more fun when you’re having fun.’” Even months before the Olympic trials, Lee said she had moments where she thought about putting gymnastics behind her, and credits her coach’s reverse psychology for keeping her committed to the sport. “When I told him, ‘I think I want to be done; I’m quitting,’” he said, ‘Okay. You don’t have to do this,’” Lee said. “His saying that I think made me want [to keep competing] even more. Because I was like, 'He’s okay with that, but I’m not okay with that.'”
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Lee was expected to debut a new skill at this event, which would then be named after her, but decided that the risk wasn’t worth jeopardizing her chances for a medal. Her scores on bars, which have been consistent through qualification, the team and all-around events, were good enough to get her on the podium, so she decided to enjoy the routine and make up for the mistake she made in the last Olympics in Tokyo. Even though the end result in both of her Olympic experiences are the same—a bronze in the uneven bars— this one, for Lee, is that much sweeter for the journey she has had from that podium to this one. “I am just having a blast here,” she said.
Lee has one more competition left, on Aug. 5, on the balance beam where she and teammate Simone Biles will compete. Biles and Jordan Chiles will also compete on floor that day.
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