Culture

Suni Lee snags bronze on bars for third medal of Paris Olympics

Published

1 year ago

August 5, 2024

Suni Lee snags bronze on bars for third medal of Paris Olympics

PARIS — When her confidence waned and her body only began to tickle the fringes of normalcy, Sunisa Lee turned to her comfort zones. Though an exceptional all-around gymnast, she is especially gifted on the uneven bars.

As she slowly made her way back from two debilitating kidney diseases, it was the bars that helped restore Lee. She felt at home there, so comfortable that she started to tinker with a new release move, hoping to have it named after her. Her coach, Jess Graba, supported the plan, encouraged her to do anything that would “get her out of bed in the morning,’’ after the side effects of her kidney ailments left her physically weak and mentally broken.

He did not push her; didn’t even set goals. Graba didn’t know what was reasonable. Besides, he knew the athlete he’s trained since she was four years old, would do that herself. Slowly the fog lifted, and the good news trickled in — a clear to work out and finally in January, an OK to compete. Still, Graba cautioned. She didn’t have to do this, do any of it, he told her. With an Olympic all-around gold medal already around her neck, she had nothing to prove. The cynics that dogged her, the ones that liked to remind her she won the gold when Simone Biles withdrew, wouldn’t be silenced anyway. In fact, if she was anything less than she had been, they probably would pounce harder.

But Lee wanted what she wanted — another shot. And so Lee plugged forward, through the lead up meets to the Olympics, adding a bit more at each stop. Bars and balance beam only at the Winter Cup in February; mixing in floor exercise at the Core Hydration Classic in May; and finally all in at Olympic trials. Even as she expanded her repertoire, the bars remained her mainstay. A place where her success fortified her, built that confidence back up.

Naturally the better she felt, the better she performed; the better performed, the more she wanted. It is human nature. But even as her eyes opened to possibility, to allowing herself to imagine medals and places, Lee reminded herself that being here was enough.

And so when Lee stepped up last in the uneven bar final in Paris, she swung to win because you always want to win; but mostly she swung because if felt good.

When the 14.800 score flashed, slotting Lee into the bronze medal, she covered her mouth in surprise, surprise that she won a medal, but more surprise at what she’s done. “The last couple of days, I saw my scores and I saw that if I just hit my routine, I could medal,’’ she said. “But really I just wanted to prove it to myself that I can do it.’’

Sunisa Lee covers her face in shock after seeing her score during the uneven bars final at the 2024 Olympics. (Photo: Jamie Squire / Getty Images)

Lee now has a stash of three Olympic medals from Paris — a gold from the team final, an all-around bronze and a bars bronze. She has a shot for a fourth tomorrow, on the beam. All this from a woman who in January wondered if she should even target the Olympics as a goal.

But if the time since her diagnosis has taught her anything, it is that she is even stronger than she thought she was. The gift of perspective has been almost liberating, allowing Lee to give herself grace and find the sweet spot between pushing for something and being simply happy you can push.

She wound up not doing the would-be signature move; she wanted to, but Graba told her the risk wasn’t worth it. He crunched the numbers. They didn’t add up. Kaylia Nemour, a 17-year-old Frenchwoman by birth who, because of a protracted disagreement with her federation competes for Algeria, was essentially untouchable. She is to bars what Simone Biles is to vault, unbeatable unless she royally screws up. Qiu Qiyuan, the reigning bars world champion from China, would be equally hard to beat because of her difficulty score.

Suni Lee wins an uneven bars bronze medal with a fantastic routine in the final! #ParisOlympics
📺 NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/0V1TGS25sp
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 4, 2024

He didn’t want to tell her she couldn’t do something, but he also knew realistically she wasn’t likely going to win a silver or gold. So aim, he told her, for what was achievable, and find the joy in achieving it. Her routine as it was constructed was good enough to land Lee on the podium; if she did the new skill and fell, it would negate any chance of making it.

At one point in her career Lee might have pushed back. Because of their long time together, Lee has no problem challenging Graba and in the past, he usually followed her lead.

The last 18 months, though, have changed their dynamic. Graba is extraordinarily protective of Lee. He saw her at her lowest, depressed and unable to even come to the gym. Asked how he’s felt, he didn’t hesitate. “Stressed,’’ he said. It was, he believed, his job to keep her goals at reach, to temper her expectations without ruining her drive.

GO DEEPER

Gold medalist Suni Lee is back at the Olympics. A team doctor helped make it so

“You’re just worried all year,’’ he said. “She put a lot out to get here, and I just wanted it to pay off.’’

The pay off came when Lee nailed her routine and completed the circle. The one event that restored her at her lowest rewarded her at her peak.

Required reading

(Photo: Dan Mullan / Getty Images)

Culture

Video: 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects

Published

6 days ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Video: 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects

new video loaded: 250 Years of Jane Austen, in Objects

To capture Jane Austen’s brief life and enormous impact, editors at The New York Times Book Review assembled a sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness she has brought to our lives.

By Jennifer Harlan, Sadie Stein, Claire Hogan, Laura Salaberry and Edward Vega

December 18, 2025

Culture

Try This Quiz and See How Much You Know About Jane Austen

Published

1 week ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Try This Quiz and See How Much You Know About Jane Austen

“Window seat with garden view / A perfect nook to read a book / I’m lost in my Jane Austen…” sings Kristin Chenoweth in “The Girl in 14G” — what could be more ideal? Well, perhaps showing off your literary knowledge and getting a perfect score on this week’s super-size Book Review Quiz Bowl honoring the life, work and global influence of Jane Austen, who turns 250 today. In the 12 questions below, tap or click your answers to the questions. And no matter how you do, scroll on to the end, where you’ll find links to free e-book versions of her novels — and more.

Culture

Revisiting Jane Austen’s Cultural Impact for Her 250th Birthday

Published

1 week ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Revisiting Jane Austen’s Cultural Impact for Her 250th Birthday

On Dec. 16, 1775, a girl was born in Steventon, England — the seventh of eight children — to a clergyman and his wife. She was an avid reader, never married and died in 1817, at the age of 41. But in just those few decades, Jane Austen changed the world.

Her novels have had an outsize influence in the centuries since her death. Not only are the books themselves beloved — as sharply observed portraits of British society, revolutionary narrative projects and deliciously satisfying romances — but the stories she created have so permeated culture that people around the world care deeply about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, even if they’ve never actually read “Pride and Prejudice.”

With her 250th birthday this year, the Austen Industrial Complex has kicked into high gear with festivals, parades, museum exhibits, concerts and all manner of merch, ranging from the classily apt to the flamboyantly absurd. The words “Jane mania” have been used; so has “exh-Aust-ion.”

How to capture this brief life, and the blazing impact that has spread across the globe in her wake? Without further ado: a mere sampling of the wealth, wonder and weirdness Austen has brought to our lives. After all, your semiquincentennial doesn’t come around every day.

By ‘A Lady’

Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, England

Austen published just four novels in her lifetime: “Sense and Sensibility” (1811), “Pride and Prejudice” (1813), “Mansfield Park” (1814) and “Emma” (1815). All of them were published anonymously, with the author credited simply as “A Lady.” (If you’re in New York, you can see this first edition for yourself at the Grolier Club through Feb. 14.)

Where the Magic Happened

Janice Chung for The New York Times

Placed near a window for light, this diminutive walnut table was, according to family lore, where the author did much of her writing. It is now in the possession of the Jane Austen Society.

An Iconic Accessory

Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, England

Few of Austen’s personal artifacts remain, contributing to the author’s mystique. One of them is this turquoise ring, which passed to her sister-in-law and then her niece after her death. In 2012, the ring was put up for auction and bought by the “American Idol” champion Kelly Clarkson. This caused quite a stir in England; British officials were loath to let such an important cultural artifact leave the country’s borders. Jane Austen’s House, the museum now based in the writer’s Hampshire home, launched a crowdfunding campaign to Bring the Ring Home and bought the piece from Clarkson. The real ring now lives at the museum; the singer has a replica.

Austen Onscreen

Since 1940, when Austen had a bit of a moment and Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier starred in MGM’s rather liberally reinterpreted “Pride and Prejudice,” there have been more than 20 international adaptations of Austen’s work made for film and TV (to say nothing of radio). From the sublime (Emma Thompson’s Oscar-winning “Sense and Sensibility”) to the ridiculous (the wholly gratuitous 2022 remake of “Persuasion”), the high waists, flickering firelight and double weddings continue to provide an endless stream of debate fodder — and work for a queen’s regiment of British stars.

Jane Goes X-Rated

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

The rumors are true: XXX Austen is a thing. “Jane Austen Kama Sutra,” “Pride and Promiscuity: The Lost Sex Scenes of Jane Austen” and enough slash fic and amateur porn to fill Bath’s Assembly Rooms are just the start. Purists may never recover.

A Lady Unmasked

Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, England

Austen’s final two completed novels, “Northanger Abbey” and “Persuasion,” were published after her death. Her brother Henry, who oversaw their publication, took the opportunity to give his sister the recognition he felt she deserved, revealing the true identity of the “Lady” behind “Pride and Prejudice,” “Emma,” etc. in a biographical note. “The following pages are the production of a pen which has already contributed in no small degree to the entertainment of the public,” he wrote, extolling his sister’s imagination, good humor and love of dancing. Still, “no accumulation of fame would have induced her, had she lived, to affix her name to any productions of her pen.”

Wearable Tributes

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jane Austen fan wants to find other Jane Austen fans, and what better way to advertise your membership in that all-inclusive club than with a bit of merch — from the subtle and classy to the gloriously obscene.

The Austen Literary Universe

Elizabeth Renstrom for The New York Times

On the page, there is no end to the adventures Austen and her characters have been on. There are Jane Austen mysteries, Jane Austen vampire series, Jane Austen fantasy adventures, Jane Austen Y.A. novels and, of course, Jane Austen romances, which transpose her plots to a remote Maine inn, a Greenwich Village penthouse and the Bay Area Indian American community, to name just a few. You can read about Austen-inspired zombie hunters, time-traveling hockey players, Long Island matchmakers and reality TV stars, or imagine further adventures for some of your favorite characters. (Even the obsequious Mr. Collins gets his day in the sun.)

A Botanical Homage

Created in 2017 to mark the 200th anniversary of Austen’s death, the “Jane Austen” rose is characterized by its intense orange color and light, sweet perfume. It is bushy, healthy and easy to grow.

Aunt Jane

Jane Austen’s House, Chawton, England

Hoping to cement his beloved aunt’s legacy, Austen’s nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh published this biography — a rather rosy portrait based on interviews with family members — five decades after her death. The book is notable not only as the source (biased though it may be) of many of the scant facts we know about her life, but also for the watercolor portrait by James Andrews that serves as its frontispiece. Based on a sketch by Cassandra, this depiction of Jane is softer and far more winsome than the original: Whether that is due to a lack of skill on her sister’s part or overly enthusiastic artistic license on Andrews’s, this is the version of Austen most familiar to people today.

Cultural Currency

Steve Parsons/Associated Press

In 2017, the Bank of England released a new 10-pound note featuring Andrews’s portrait of Austen, as well as a line from “Pride and Prejudice”: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!” Austen is the third woman — other than the queen — to be featured on British currency, and the only one currently in circulation.

In the Trenches

During World War I and World War II, British soldiers were given copies of Austen’s works. In his 1924 story “The Janeites,” Rudyard Kipling invoked the grotesque contrasts — and the strange comfort — to be found in escaping to Austen’s well-ordered world amid the horrors of trench warfare. As one character observes, “There’s no one to touch Jane when you’re in a tight place.”

Baby Janes

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

You’re never too young to learn to love Austen — or that one’s good opinion, once lost, may be lost forever.

The Austen Industrial Complex

Elizabeth Renstrom for The New York Times

Maybe you’ve not so much as seen a Jane Austen meme, let alone read one of her novels. No matter! Need a Jane Austen finger puppet? Lego? Magnetic poetry set? Lingerie? Nameplate necklace? Plush book pillow? License plate frame? Bath bomb? Socks? Dog sweater? Whiskey glass? Tarot deck? Of course you do! And you’re in luck: What a time to be alive.

Around the Globe

Goucher College Special Collections & Archives, Alberta H. and Henry G. Burke Collection; via The Morgan Library & Museum

Austen’s novels have been translated into more than 40 languages, including Polish, Finnish, Chinese and Farsi. There are active chapters of the Jane Austen Society, her 21st-century fan club, throughout the world.

Playable Persuasions

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

In Austen’s era, no afternoon tea was complete without a rousing round of whist, a trick-taking card game played in two teams of two. But should you not be up on your Regency amusements, you can find plenty of contemporary puzzles and games with which to fill a few pleasant hours, whether you’re piecing together her most beloved characters or using your cunning and wiles to land your very own Mr. Darcy.

#SoJaneAusten

The wild power of the internet means that many Austen moments have taken on lives of their own, from Colin Firth’s sopping wet shirt and Matthew Macfadyen’s flexing hand to Mr. Collins’s ode to superlative spuds and Mr. Knightley’s dramatic floor flop. The memes are fun, yes, but they also speak to the universality of Austen’s writing: More than two centuries after her books were published, the characters and stories she created are as relatable as ever.

Bonnets Fit for a Bennett

Peter Flude for The New York Times

For this summer’s Grand Regency Costumed Promenade in Bath, England — as well as the myriad picnics, balls, house parties, dinners, luncheons, teas and fetes that marked the anniversary — seamstresses, milliners, mantua makers and costume warehouses did a brisk business, attiring the faithful in authentic Regency finery. And that’s a commitment: A bespoke, historically accurate bonnet can easily run to hundreds of dollars.

Most Ardently, Jane

The Morgan Library & Museum

Austen was prolific correspondent, believed to have written thousands of letters in her lifetime, many to her sister, Cassandra. But in an act that has frustrated biographers for centuries, upon Jane’s death, Cassandra protected her sister’s privacy — and reputation? — by burning almost all of them, leaving only about 160 intact, many heavily redacted. But what survives is filled with pithy one-liners. To wit: “I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.”

Stage and Sensibility

Austen’s works have been adapted numerous times for the stage. Some plays (and musicals) hew closely to the original text, while others — such as Emily Breeze’s comedic riff on “Pride and Prejudice,” “Are the Bennet Girls OK?”, which is running at New York City’s West End Theater through Dec. 21 — use creative license to explore ideas of gender, romance and rage through a contemporary lens.

Austen 101

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

Austen remains a reliable fount of academic scholarship; recent conference papers have focused on the author’s enduring global reach, the work’s relationship to modern intersectionality, digital humanities and “Jane Austen on the Cheap.” And as one professor told our colleague Sarah Lyall of the Austen amateur scholarship hive, “Woe betide the academic who doesn’t take them seriously.”