Six-time Olympic medalist Suni Lee announced on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, via an Instagram video, that she is returning to competitive gymnastics roughly two years out from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Lee, 23, had not competed since winning team gold, all-around bronze and uneven bars bronze at the Paris 2024 Games. USA Gymnastics reshared the announcement on its own Instagram account, writing: “The journey continues! Welcome back, Suni!”
There is a particular kind of silence that follows an athlete stepping away at their peak, and that silence surrounded Suni Lee. Paris 2024 had delivered another haul of medals, but it also closed a chapter shadowed by illness and doubt that few outside the sport fully understood. Her return, announced via a video stitched together from old training clips and competition footage, carries the weight of someone choosing to write the next part of her own story on her own terms.
The timing is not incidental. With Los Angeles 2028 now firmly on the horizon, Lee’s announcement lands as part of a broader stirring among decorated gymnasts weighing one more Olympic cycle.
A video built from memory, aimed at the future
Instead, viewers were offered a montage of past practices and competitions. The clip closed on text reading, “This is more than a comeback, stay tuned”.
The federation reshared the video with the caption “The journey continues! Welcome back, Suni!” — a public endorsement that, while not a detailed statement of logistics, signalled institutional support for her comeback.
What Lee is coming back from
To understand the significance of Tuesday’s announcement, it helps to understand what stood between Paris and this moment. Lee was diagnosed with a chronic kidney disease in 2023, a health battle that ran parallel to her competitive obligations and cast every subsequent performance in a different light. She has also spoken candidly about depression and self-doubt in the years between the Tokyo and Paris Games, struggles that shaped the athlete who eventually walked away from competition after 2024.
Set against that backdrop, her Paris medals — team gold, all-around bronze, uneven bars bronze — read differently than a simple results sheet might suggest. They were earned amid circumstances that would have ended many careers outright. Her six Olympic medals across two Games, including the Tokyo 2020 all-around gold that first established her as a generational talent, now sit alongside a comeback that few would have predicted.
Part of a wider pattern
Lee is not gymnastics’ only prominent returnee eyeing 2028. Her announcement comes roughly three months after fellow Olympic gold medalist Jade Carey confirmed her own intention to compete again ahead of the Los Angeles Games. Separately, former UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi, now 29, has also re-entered elite gymnastics after a 13-year retirement, chasing the same Olympic target.
Simone Biles’ name has surfaced in connection with a potential 2028 return as well, though nothing has been confirmed on her part. Taken together, these movements suggest Los Angeles 2028 may draw a field shaped as much by seasoned returnees as by a new generation, with athletes like Hezly Rivera.
What comes next
What exists is intent — stated plainly, backed by USA Gymnastics, and set against a career that has already proven capable of exceeding expectation under difficult circumstances.
Whether this comeback culminates in a place on the 2028 Los Angeles roster remains to be seen, and much will depend on decisions still to be made public. But with Carey, Ohashi and possibly Biles all circling the same Games, Lee’s announcement adds another significant name to a gathering storyline — one that will only sharpen as qualifying events draw nearer and the road to Los Angeles begins in earnest.
