Suni Lee named as one of Glamour’s Women of the Year

MINNEAPOLIS — Olympic gymnast Suni Lee is adding another accolade to her list: she was named as one of Glamour’s Women of the Year.
Each year, Glamour names several “trailblazers, rule breakers, visionaries, and champions who have defined each year.” The two-time Olympic gold medalist from St. Paul joined a 2024 class that included athletes Serena Williams and Allyson Felix.
In Paris this year, Lee was a member of the USA team that won gold, which she described to Glamour as her “proudest achievement.” At the 2021 Olympic games in Tokyo, she took home the gold in the all-around after Simone Biles pulled out last minute.
After the 2021 games, Lee enrolled at Auburn University, but left in 2023 to train for Paris. But she then battled a debilitating kidney disease in the run-up to the 2024 Olympic games and questioned if she would ever return to the podium.
“I could not bend my legs in the slightest, I couldn’t squeeze my fingers, my face was swollen,” she said, noting she retained 45 pounds of water weight. “I looked like a completely different person. It was very, very miserable.”
She was able to recover, and despite relapsing the week before the Olympic trials, Lee returned from Paris with three medals, including two bronze for the individual all-around and the uneven bars.
Glamour also named actresses Sydney Sweeney, Pamela Anderson and Taraji P. Henson to the 2024 class. The class also includes abortion rights activists Hadley Duvall and Kaitlyn Jousha, and “The Moms,” a group of women who raised superstars like Billie Eilish, Beyoncé, Travis Kelce and Selena Gomez because in speeches and interviews, “the people we most admire . . . all seem to credit the same person for their success. Mom.”