Suni Lee has a huge fan who lives in Nashville: Her name is Shawn Johnson.
Shawn Johnson has a huge fan from St. Paul, Minnesota. Her name is Suni Lee.
These two Olympic gymnasts have a lot more in common than just mutual respect.
Johnson was 16 when she won one gold medal and three silver medals in women's gymnastics for the United States at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Lee was 18 when she won a gold medal and two silver medals in the individual all-around at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Both athletes led their teams to silver medals, and both have appeared on “Dancing with the Stars.”
Lee, a junior at Auburn University, is scheduled to compete at the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials from June 27-30 in her hometown of Minneapolis.
“I hope she stays on the team,” Johnson told The Tennessean. “When she competes, you can see her heart.”
Shawn Johnson talks about Suni Lee's story: 'It's really powerful'
Lee, who won an individual NCAA title in 2022, will be seeking to qualify for his second Olympic Games just over a year after being diagnosed with an incurable kidney disease that cut his collegiate career short and forced him to miss more than five months of training.
“She's a sweet, kind, amazing young woman,” Johnson said, “and to see her come back after all her health challenges is just so, so amazing and so powerful.”
Lee, who said she was recently in remission, spent much of her childhood looking up to the 4-foot-11-inch tall Johnson and began studying him on YouTube when she was 6 years old.
Her father, John Lee, built a balance beam for her, and shortly thereafter, her parents enrolled her in her first gymnastics class.
Gymnastics success
Both Lee and Johnson have proven marketable outside of the gymnastics world.
Lee has deals with Crocs, Amazon, Gatorade, and Target, not to mention monetized social media accounts.
She appeared in the YouTube documentary series “Defying Gravity: The Untold Story of Women's Gymnastics” in 2020. In 2021, she appeared in the Peacock documentary series “Golden: The Journey of USA's Elite Gymnasts.”
Johnson's previous endorsements include Nike, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Oscar Mayer, Crest toothpaste and Target, and he is currently advertising Barilla pasta.
Following her Olympic performance in 2008, Johnson appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “Late Night with David Letterman” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” She was also a celebrity contestant on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”
Johnson will cover the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris as a Yahoo Sports correspondent.
She hopes to meet Lee there again.
“She's been through a lot,” Johnson said, “and she lights up the floor. She loves what she does.”
Paul Skrbina is a sports reporter for The Tennessean covering the Predators, Titans, Nashville SC, local colleges and local sports. He can be reached at pskrbina@tennessean.com or on the X Platform (formerly Twitter). translation:You can follow his work here.
