Olympic All-Around Champ Sunisa Lee Committed to Auburn. She’s Still Going.
The newly minted Olympic all-around champion has more choices than any American gymnast before her—and she says she’s definitely competing for the university
TOKYO—A day after grabbing the most coveted crown in women’s gymnastics, Sunisa Lee is adamant about one thing: she is going to Auburn University in the fall.
“I’m probably going to take a couple weeks off of gym, and then go to college. That’s my way of celebrating—going to college,” she told reporters Friday.
Lee will become the first American Olympic all-around champion to go on to NCAA gymnastics—because she is the first one who doesn’t have to give up the possibility of taking money for endorsements or touring, after states pushed the National Collegiate Athletic Association into overhauling its eligibility rules.
She has long been committed to attend and compete for Auburn, where the gymnastics team’s head coach Jeff Graba is the twin brother of her coach Jess Graba in Little Canada, Minn.
The idea of the Olympic all-around champion following through on a college commitment, though, would have been almost unthinkable until now.
For Lee’s predecessors, the value of post-Olympic opportunities gave them no choice but to forgo a scholarship and four years of competing in the fun, relaxed world of NCAA gymnastics. And some high-profile gymnasts have rolled the dice by turning professional in the run-up to the Games—and then regretted missing out on the collegiate experience.
But Lee can do both, and post-Olympic opportunities are already coming in.
Sunisa Lee confirmed that there had been discussions about her appearing in the exhibition Gold Over America Tour, the Simone Biles-headlined production.
PHOTO: CAO CAN/ZUMA PRESSShe confirmed that there had been discussions about her appearing in the exhibition Gold Over America Tour, the Simone Biles-headlined production that will hit 35 cities in the fall, and for which Lee could now be paid far more than a basic food and lodging stipend. Biles has said she would be on the bill despite the current condition that forced her withdrawal from the team and all-around finals.
Lee said she hadn’t made a decision about the tour, and that it would depend on whether she could work out the times with her Auburn coaches. She wasn’t ruling out anything a day after a win that was as stunning for her as anyone else, including the world championships in Japan in October, or the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, now only three years away.
But it’s college that she is certain of. She has to be at Auburn by Aug. 11, she knows her roommate already, and she hopes it will still be a normal experience for her.
“I really do want to compete gymnastics at Auburn. That’s like—I’m looking forward to that so much,” she said.
The Auburn gymnastics team will be getting a big boost.
PHOTO: JULIE BENNETT/ASSOCIATED PRESS“I know that I’m set on going to college because that just has been another one of my dreams,” she said. School will let her “get away from this elite atmosphere because it’s so, like, crazy. And I know that college is going to be way better.”Lee can almost certainly prove wrong the fears that allowing college athletes to be compensated for the use of their name, image and likeness would largely benefit star male athletes in so-called “revenue sports,” and hurt female athletes. She could even find that the chance to compete regularly in college gives her more exposure than a typical champion receives after the Games fade.
Lee said she wants to be careful not to risk her college eligibility no matter what the new rules are. But very little is off the table, said Michael Burwick, a Greenspoon Marder sports lawyer and licensed basketball player agent. In Alabama, Lee can look to a state law passed this year that requires schools to allow athlete endorsement rights, with only a handful of restrictions around products that a school wants to bar, such as tobacco or casinos.
“She could do anything from selling used cars in her hometown to IBM or Apple or Microsoft, ” he said. And “Dancing with the Stars,” a dream for some Olympians? “Absolutely,” he said. An apparel deal that conflicts with Auburn’s would also not be a problem, he said.
The tougher balancing act, said Octagon agent Peter Carlisle, could be juggling the flood of opportunities that come most in the months immediately after the Games, but also carry a huge time commitment, such as touring or “Dancing With the Stars.”
But it is a potential boon for the college if they can figure it out—and the sport.
“I’m imagining just how many people would come to the meets every single weekend” had Simone Biles been allowed to compete at them, said Samantha Peszek, a 2008 Olympic team member and former gymnast for UCLA, where Biles was committed before she went pro.
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