In the summer of 2021, as the world cautiously emerged from silence and lockdowns, a teenager from St. Paul, Minnesota, stepped onto the Olympic floor in Tokyo — not just carrying the weight of her dreams, but of her family, her community, and a nation searching for hope. With Simone Biles stepping back, Suni Lee stepped in — steady, quiet, and fierce — and made history. She won gold in the all-around, but her path forward wasn’t linear—health battles dimmed her Paris 2024 dreams. Putting all the behind for a while, Lee stepped out of the leotard and into something new. But this has brought newer sets of struggles for her!
In between Tokyo and her recent endeavors, Lee had joined Auburn University, competing in NCAA gymnastics while navigating sudden fame. But in 2023, her season was cut short due to a mysterious illness, later revealed to be two rare, incurable kidney diseases. As per reports, the diagnosis brought intense swelling, weight gain, and fatigue. However, she struck back in the 2024 Paris Games and stunned even her harshest critics. And Suni seems to be eyeing one such trouble yet again!
“Suni Lee Debuts for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit After Another Triumphant Olympics” titled SI, as they had the gymnast posing for the 2025 Swimsuit issue. In 2025, SI is taking in many sportswomen with them. These include Anna Hall, Ali Truwit, Cameron Brink, Caroline Marks, Eileen Gu, Jordan Chiles, Nelly Korda, Gabby Thomas, and Toni Breidinger. All of them have been photographed by Ben Horton in Boca Raton.
While Lee’s gallery has been up on the website of Sports Illustrated, where she can be seen donning swimsuits in different colors, one specific swimsuit caught the eyes of the fans. There was one specific swimsuit that resembled the shape of a leotard, a quick nod to the Olympian gymnastics legacy, the difference was that this swimsuit features deep side cutouts. What was also special about this swimsuit was its nod to Suni Lee‘s Olympic legacy. At the side of her waistline, you can see a row of embroidered Olympic medals — gold, silver, and bronze.
But only if that caught the fans’ eyes, when the gymnast turned around, what was revealed in the swimsuit was a mark. A mark that has inspired quite the discussion among fans, with some saying, “I like the pictures, to me it looks like she’s made peace with her condition. It’s hard having your health robbed from you, I imagine being an athlete only makes it worse.”
While that fan might have only focused on the rising aspect of the, many of the fans are left concerned over what it means. They want to know the reason, every if and but of it, and speculations have also begun.
Fans are concerned about Suni Lee’s struggle
“Suni has a history of eczema, and it could be patches of hypopigmentation from that,” was one of the guesses from the fans on Reddit when the post was up. Eczema is a chronic skin condition that causes dry, itchy, and inflamed skin. It can lead to post-inflammatory hypopigmentation, where areas of the skin lose pigment after inflammation subsides. So that could have been the case, but one other fan said, “Did she have serious kidney problems?” This could have been true as well, because the scars did appear in the region where the kidney is.
Lee was diagnosed in 2023 with two rare and incurable kidney diseases, the specific names of which she has chosen not to disclose publicly. Her symptoms included significant swelling, weight gain, and fatigue, which ultimately led to the early conclusion of her collegiate gymnastics career at Auburn University. The woman was bedridden before her miraculous return at the 2024 Olympics. One fan said, “I was going to say these look like old burn scars. But I didn’t know of anything in her history.”
While they do resemble burn marks, and there have been claims of Suni Lee being burned at the age of three, we could not find a claim. But if so, it has been the case, no less than agreeing with this fan saying, “That must’ve been terrifying. Kids that age can move so quickly and get into things you never thought they would. I’m glad Suni wasn’t more seriously injured!” Lee has not disclosed her kidney problems; she might not speak about these scars, and it’s only better to respect her privacy and leave things to suspense for now.
The post Fans Concerned for Suni Lee as Olympic Gold Medalist’s Struggles Comes Up Through SI Swimsuit Shoot appeared first on EssentiallySports.
