Sunisa Lee, an Olympic all-around gold medalist and uneven bars bronze medalist, could be looking to try something new at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
A new element to her uneven bars routine is a release move where the gymnast flips forward from the layout position and then does a full twist, something she hopes will make her the first woman to complete in international competition.
If she can do it at the Olympics, the skill, commonly known as the full twisting jaeger, will be named “The Lee.” It will be the first skill named after her in the sport’s point code. While a handful of skills tend to be named each year, very few gymnasts have a skill named after them.
“The Lee” is probably one of the most difficult elements in women’s singles. Let’s take a closer look at how she performs the move.
Each technique in the Idanba event has a letter value indicating its difficulty, starting from A to G, but this player’s new technique is likely to be H.
Jaeger, named after Bernd Jaeger, is a series of movements that involve swinging 360 degrees from a high bar with the body straight, releasing with a front flip before re-catching the high bar. It can be a straddle (D), pike (D), or layout (F).
The layout Jaeger is called the Cappuccitti (named after Stephanie Cappuccitti) and is rarely attempted in competition due to the difficulty of getting the bar. Lee’s move adds a complete twist to make it even more difficult.
NOTE: Capuccitti was voiced by Luo Rui. Full Twisting Jaeger was voiced by Sunisa Lee.
Image courtesy of the International Gymnastics Federation (Rui); The New York Times (Lee)
What makes this athlete’s move particularly notable is that she didn’t create a variation of another release technique called the Tkatchev, which is the path most other-bar innovators have followed in recent years.
The original version, named after Soviet gymnast Aleksandr Takachev, involved the gymnast swinging around a high bar with his body outstretched, releasing the bar near the top of the swing, then flying backwards over the bar with his legs apart, turning his upper body forward and catching the bar again.
Note: Performed by Gabby Douglas.
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The swing can be performed in five different body positions, the flight can be performed in three different body positions, and it is even possible to perform a half-twist in the air. That means there are at least 30 different permutations of the same root skill.
In the past four years alone, six new Tkatchev variants have been discovered.
There are still a few left, but Lee has chosen a different path. It has been 18 years since the last Jaeger-based innovation, with Chinese gymnast Li Ya last showing off a Jaeger with a half twist in 2006.
In January, Lee posted a video on Instagram of himself performing a new trick during a training session, a sign that he was returning to form after facing serious health issues for much of last year.
The athlete was diagnosed with an incurable kidney disease that left his face, hands and legs severely swollen and unable to compete.
After returning to elite competition, she tried a new technique at the Winter Cup in February, but missed an element in her bar routine and fell.
It’s unclear how difficult or dangerous the technique is, or whether the athlete will attempt it for a medal. But the Paris Olympics will provide an opportunity to name the technique after her and leave an indelible mark on the sport.
