Suni Lee wins bronze in bars; Kaylia Nemour earns Africa's first gymnastics medal

PARIS — Suni Lee held down the fort as the only American in Sunday’s uneven bars final, earning a bronze and successfully defending her podium finish in Tokyo.

Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour fulfilled her long-awaited destiny by winning gold. Qiu Qiyuan of China took silver.

Lee had the advantage of going last, which gave her the opportunity to perform the most strategic routine possible. She earned a 14.800 with a slightly more conservative routine and became the first U.S. woman to win two Olympic medals in the event.

"It's a lot harder because I had to watch everybody in front of me, so it definitely put the pressure on," Lee said.

Typically gymnasts avoid watching the routines before them to stay focused, but Lee couldn't resist watching the world's best bar workers from the best seat in the house.

"I’m not even going to miss these routines, because they’re so good," she said. "So that that’s why I was like, 'I have to watch them because it’s not the same when you watch it on the replay.' So I just wanted to see, and I was just so happy because all the girls deserve it."

She never thought to dream of winning all-around Olympic gold in Tokyo with Simone Biles in the mix, but a bars medal was always on the agenda there.

While she made the bars podium in Tokyo, Lee will be the first to say it wasn't the routine she had hoped for.

"I told myself I was coming back to redeem myself on bars, and that’s what I did this time," Lee said. "I really wanted to just put a good, clean routine together."

For her return to the Olympic Games, she has been candid about the Parisian hardware she’s been eyeing.

Lee had very specific goals in mind for her Olympic encore: a team gold medal, an all-around podium finish, a bars medal and a gold medal on the balance beam. So far, Paris has gone exactly as planned. Now, only beam hangs in the balance.

Lee became a six-time Olympic medalist Sunday, adding to a hefty Paris haul after having clinched her second all-around medal Thursday, a bronze, and a gold medal in Tuesday’s team event.

“Coming into this Olympics, all of us felt like we had something to, like, redeem or prove,” Lee said. “My biggest one is probably beam and bar finals. ... I’m a little nervous.”

A year ago, Lee was so ill battling a serious kidney disease that she couldn’t even fasten her grips to mount her signature event.

She said Sunday that she has been "flooded with messages" from people who have similarly grappled with chronic illness.

"Having people that were there to uplift me and support me along the way was such a good feeling," Lee said. "I think that’s such an important message, to just lean on your people when you need them, because you never know what can happen, and also just keep reaching for your dreams, because there were times where I wanted to give up literally every single day."

The newly minted bars champion, Nemour, 17, is representing Algeria in Paris even though she was born and raised in France. Her gold is the country’s first Olympic medal in gymnastics and the first Olympic gymnastics medal for an African nation.

She switched nationalities last year through her paternal Algerian heritage after a lengthy dispute with the French gymnastics federation that left her Paris hopes in jeopardy. The conflict involved contentions over where she would train and allegations that Nemour’s coach was overworking her.

The French team is sure to be lamenting burned bridges with Nemour this week. She earned a 15.700 Sunday, the highest bars score of the entire Olympics.

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The French squad failed to qualify for the team final or any individual finals at all at its home Olympics after a disastrous showing in Sunday’s qualifying round. If it had Nemour’s scores, it would have sailed through to team finals.

Belgium’s Nina Derwael, who won the uneven bars gold medal in Tokyo, finished fourth and won't defend her title. She only narrowly earned a Paris berth after she dislocated her shoulder, qualifying for the Games on beam, which is her weaker event.

Lee and Biles will contend for a beam medal Monday, which is the final day of gymnastics in Paris.

Kaetlyn Liddy reported from New York and Alexander Smith from Paris.