FORT WORTH — Just as Sunisa Lee lunged toward the vault, her coach could tell something was off. He noticed a slight stumble that led to Lee’s feet landing a bit too far back on the springboard. And in a sport defined by tiny margins and split-second decisions, Jess Graba hoped his star pupil would follow her instincts forged by years of training and find a way to land safely.
Lee was supposed to push off the vault with her hands and complete two twists as she flipped through the air. But with the early mishap, the double twist didn’t go as planned. Lee performed just 1½ twists instead and then “I just put it to my butt,” she said.
Simone Biles saw what happened during Lee’s first performance of the evening and immediately could relate. Lee headed to an arena tunnel to compose herself and figure out her next steps. Biles joined her.
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“I’ve been in her shoes,” Biles said. “I’ve done that exact thing. And I know how traumatizing it is, especially on a big stage like this.”
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Biles, of course, is referencing her own vault that went wrong during the team final at the Tokyo Olympics. Biles blamed a mental block known as “the twisties,” a disorienting sensation that leaves gymnasts feeling lost in the air. Biles had attempted to perform 2½ twists before stalling midair and completing just 1½. Lee’s trouble Sunday night at the national championships wasn’t quite the same. Because of the funky approach to the springboard, Lee described it as a “fluke, weird incident.” Still, the outcome was eerily familiar.
“I just knew that she needed some encouragement and somebody to trust her gymnastics for her and to believe in her,” Biles said.
The two Olympians had a short conversation. Biles asked whether Lee had become lost in the air and encouraged her not to overthink her skills. (When Lee later explained what happened, she noted the mishap during her run and said, “I didn’t know where I was [in the air], but I knew exactly where I was, if that makes sense.”)
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Lee recalled Biles “checking to see if I was okay mentally before I went out there, and she said if I was getting lost on my dismount, then to just be done and let it be.” Lee then asked Biles to stand nearby while she performed on bars, her next event.
The timing worked out well. Lee was up second on bars in the second rotation, while Biles was last on floor. So Biles headed to the other side of the arena to cheer on Lee as she worked through her routine on her signature event. Lee was fantastic. She floated through the air on four consecutive release elements, each one with the superb execution for which she’s known, and she capped the routine with a full-twisting double tuck dismount.
“I don’t think I could have done it without her,” Lee said.
Lee earned a 14.500 and still has room to improve her difficulty score ahead of the Olympic trials. After the vault, she just needed a confidence boost, citing Biles, her coaches and the medical staff as the people who lifted her out of the rut.
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Lee is the reigning Olympic all-around champion, but that doesn’t make her invincible. She has had a difficult past year because of kidney-related health issues. This meet was her first competing on all four apparatuses at the elite level since the Tokyo Games three years ago. So when her vault went awry in the first rotation — a one-point deduction for the fall in addition to the mental setback — she benefited from some reassurance.
“Normally I can just watch and make sure that the music’s working and stuff like that, which is the most stressful part of the day,” Graba said. “But days like today, you have to actually coach. You have to know your athlete. They have to trust you. And you better be right. Then they trust you the next time.”
Lee knows bars and beam are the most critical events in her quest to make it to a second Olympics. That’s where she can help the U.S. team the most. So after Lee rallied on bars with an assist from Biles, she needed another strong showing on beam.
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In the next rotation, Lee sailed through her beam routine like a veteran. Her precision elevates her performance, and the 14.900 she earned Sunday was the best beam score of the competition. (Biles had the higher two-day combined score to win the apparatus title, while Lee took home the silver medal.) Each successful bars and beam routine brings Lee a bit closer to a spot on the team heading to Paris.
After that excellent beam routine, Graba told Lee, “That’s who you are.”
Graba said he was never overly nervous. He knew Lee just needed to calm down after vault. Lee still doubts herself sometimes. But despite her recent health trouble, limited preparation and the mishap on vault, she finished fourth in the all-around, with the early mistake making her rebound even more impressive.
“Everything can be stacked against you,” Graba said. “And I always put my money on her.”
