{"id":681,"date":"2024-07-28T12:37:50","date_gmt":"2024-07-28T12:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=681"},"modified":"2024-07-28T12:37:50","modified_gmt":"2024-07-28T12:37:50","slug":"suni-lee-gymnastics-bars-html","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=681","title":{"rendered":"What to Know About Suni Lee\u2019s New Uneven Bars Move"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Sunisa Lee, the defending Olympic all-around gold medalist and uneven bars bronze medalist, may attempt a new skill at the 2024 Paris Games.<\/p>\n

The new element in her uneven bars routine is a release move in which a gymnast does a front flip and a full twist in the layout position. Lee is seeking to be the first woman ever to complete this move in international competition.<\/p>\n

If she is able to do it at the Games, the skill \u2014 commonly known as a full-twisting Jaeger \u2014 would be christened \u201cThe Lee,\u201d the first skill to be named after her in the sport\u2019s Code of Points. A handful of skills tend to be named each year, but only a very small number of gymnasts will ever earn the distinction of a namesake.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lee\u201d would be one of the most difficult elements in women\u2019s uneven bars. Let\u2019s take a closer look at how she performs the move.<\/p>\n

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Each skill in the uneven bars event has a letter value indicating difficulty, starting with A and going through G, though Lee\u2019s new skill has the potential to become an H.<\/p>\n

Jaegers, named for Bernd J\u00e4ger, refer to a family of moves that consist of a 360-degree swing with a straight body on the high bar and a release into a front flip before catching the high bar again. They can be straddled (D), piked (D) or laid out (F).<\/p>\n

The layout Jaeger is called a Cappuccitti (named for Stephanie Cappuccitti) and is rarely attempted in competition because of the difficulty of catching the bar. Lee\u2019s move further increases the difficulty by adding a full twist.<\/p>\n

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Note: The Cappuccitti was performed by Luo Rui. The full-twisting Jaeger was performed by Sunisa Lee.<\/p>\n

Imagery by International Gymnastics Federation (Rui); The New York Times (Lee)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

What makes Lee\u2019s move particularly striking is that she is not creating a variation on a different release skill called a Tkatchev, the route followed by most uneven bars innovators in recent years.<\/p>\n

In the original version<\/a> \u2014 named for the Soviet gymnast Aleksandr Tkatchev \u2014 the gymnast swings around the high bar with a straight body, releases it near the apex of the swing, flies backward over the bar with legs straddled, and rotates the upper body forward to catch the bar again.<\/p>\n

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Note: Performed by Gabby Douglas.<\/p>\n

U.S.A. Gymnastics<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The swing can be performed with five body positions, the flight can be performed with three body positions, and it is also possible to do a half-twist in the air. This means there are at least 30 permutations of the same root skill.<\/p>\n

Six new Tkatchev variants have been named in the last four years alone.<\/p>\n

While there are still some up for grabs, Lee chose to go a different route. It has been 18 years since anyone innovated on the Jaeger base. The Chinese gymnast Li Ya was the last, introducing a Jaeger with a half twist in 2006.<\/p>\n

In January, Lee posted videos on Instagram<\/a> showing her doing the new skill during a training session. It was a sign that she was getting back in form after facing serious health issues for much of last year.<\/p>\n

Lee was diagnosed with an incurable kidney disease, which caused severe swelling in her face, hands and legs, making it impossible to compete.<\/p>\n

On her return to elite competition, she attempted the new skill at the Winter Cup in February but missed the element during her bars routine and fell.<\/p>\n

Because of how difficult and risky the skill is, it is not certain whether Lee will attempt it with a medal on the line. But the Olympics in Paris will offer a chance to have the move named after her and to leave an indelible mark on the sport.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n