The 2023 season marks the end of Suni Lee’s college gymnastics career, and if Saturday’s opening meet was any indication, fans will be treated to one of the best individual gymnastics campaigns ever.
Lee scored a perfect 10 on the beam at the Super 16 meet in Las Vegas, orchestrating a flawless routine and earning the fourth 10 on beam in her career. The Auburn superstar’s perfect score was unsurprisingly good enough to win the event’s beam competition.
In the 16-team event to start the ’23 season, No. 5 Auburn was paired with No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 4 Michigan and No. 10 UCLA. In November, Lee revealed this would be her final season at Auburn and that she would subsequently make a run for the Paris ’24 Olympics.
“My focus right now is to make it the most incredible season yet and to be the best teammate I can be,” Lee said in a video in November. “To strive for excellence and to reach our maximum potential.”
Lee made a huge leap in career as a star in the Tokyo Olympics, bringing home all-around gold. She was later named Sports Illustrated’s 2021 Female Athlete of the Year.
In 2022, she helped lead Auburn to “Four on the Floor” while also securing the SEC title for bars, the NCAA title on balance beam and claiming runner-up honors in the all-around. Lee also posted five perfect scores, ending the regular season with the highest average score in the country on both the beam and the bars.
