Olympic gymnast Sunisa “Suni” Lee is doing a bit of a cleanse before her showing at the beam finals and plans to “stay off social media for a little bit,” including Twitter. The gold medal winner — who took home the honor following her performance in the all-around competition — revealed that she was going to delete the app on Sunday, August 1.
“I’ll probably cool down a little bit and just focus on what I need to do especially because we’re coming to the end. I want to just do the best I can and end it off good,” the 18-year-old told reporters after her bronze medal win on the uneven bars. “I’m probably going to delete Twitter. Instagram is not as bad because I can’t really see what people say, but [on] Twitter it’s just so easy to see everything. So I’m probably going to have to end up deleting that.”
However, she will keep one social media app to enjoy during her downtime. “TikTok is my getaway app,” the Minnesota native added. “It’s just so fun.”
The elite athlete, who has been an integral part of Team USA this year, revealed that she was “really proud” of herself despite the “pressure” she felt. “There were so many times in my bar routine where I could have just [given] up and jumped off but I didn’t and now I have a bronze medal,” she explained. “I thought I was done.”
Suni even went as far as to say the bronze win was more noteworthy for her than her gold. “This medal probably means more to be than the all-around gold medal did, just because bars is my thing,” she explained. “To mess it up like this, I was just kind of sad about it.” She also noted that she “got distracted and lost focus a little bit” after securing the gold medal.
She added, “I felt like I wanted to make everybody else happy because bars is my thing and a lot of people were rooting for me.”
The champion took to Instagram to open up about her feelings on the uneven bars performance. “Olympic bronze medalist on bars,” she captioned an Instagram photo of herself and her medal on Sunday. “Definitely wasn’t the routine I expected to do, but I’m so proud of myself for not giving up. Disappointed [and] sad but beyond blessed to say I’m third in the world on bars. Wish I could have gotten to show everyone what i am capable of!! Thank you for your endless support. Beam finals up next!”
Suni also holds a silver medal from the Tokyo Olympics, which she shares with the rest of Team USA from the Team final.