Suni Lee wins Olympic TikTok meme by poking fun at her balance beam fall

TikTok users are sharing videos of their athletic failures in a new Olympic meme. Now Olympic gymnast Sunisa “Suni” Lee herself has joined in, poking fun at her own fall during Monday’s women’s balance beam finals.

Numerous athletes have been posting clips of their sporting mishaps to TikTok, accompanied by text noting that they sadly weren’t chosen to join the 2024 Olympic team. The videos are scored by an instrumental remix of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” giving their earnest yet fumbling efforts the bombastic celebration they deserve.

Athletes from across the sporting spectrum have taken part in this meme, from divers smacking the diving board, to hurdlers tripping on multiple hurdles in a row, to gymnasts swinging around the uneven bars or prepping to backflip for far longer than intended. Even celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey got in on the meme, sharing a video of him failing to score a point while shooting some hoops on a basketball court.

Yet even when you are chosen to join the Olympic team, your best efforts won’t always go to plan. Six-time Olympic medalist Lee demonstrated as such when she unexpectedly fell from the balance beam during the finals on Monday, tying for fifth place with her teammate Simone Biles. Italian gymnasts Alice D’Amato and Manila Esposito would end up winning gold and bronze respectively, while Chinese gymnast Yaqin Zhou took silver. 

Despite her disappointment, Lee chose to make the best of the situation. Taking the opportunity to join in on the viral Olympic TikTok meme, Lee poked fun at herself by sharing a clip of her balance beam fall just one day after the finals.

“unfortunately i was selected for the olympics,” Lee wrote on the video posted to TikTok on Tuesday.

Punctuating the joke with a heart emoji, she followed up in the video description with a loudly crying face emoji and two emojis of smiling faces with tears.

Why the Olympic women’s balance beam finals was so awkward

Lee and Biles were among four competitors who fell off the balance beam during the women’s finals on Monday. This was a significant number considering only eight gymnasts were competing, all of whom are world-class athletes. As such, the uncharacteristic spills quickly prompted online speculation and conspiracy theories regarding the state of the Olympic equipment. 

It wouldn’t be the first time an equipment issue undermined gymnasts’ performances at the Olympics. Infamously, the women’s vault at the 2000 Sydney Olympics was mistakenly set 5 cm (2 inches) too low, causing multiple athletes to fall before the error was detected and corrected.

Regardless of such conjecture, there have been no reports of anything actually rotten with the state of the balance beam at this year’s Paris Olympics. However, some gymnasts have stated that they were unsettled by the lack of background music or noise during the finals.

Gymnasts typically train alongside others in loud gymnasiums, growing accustomed to performing their impressive flips amidst significant noise. Even so, the Paris Olympics bizarrely opted to do away with background music for the individual gymnastic event finals. The oppressive silence was further imposed by audience members who reportedly shushed other spectators during the women’s beam finals — and also shushed the athletes themselves when they cheered for their teammates.

“Honestly, we do better in environments when there’s noise going on because it feels most like practice,” Biles said afterward, calling the final “weird and awkward.” 

“[The silence] adds to the stress, just because it’s like you, yes, you’re the only one up there,” Lee concurred. “So I was feeling the pressure.”

Though she missed out on a podium place for the balance beam, Lee still ended her 2024 Olympic run with three shiny new medals: A gold for the team event and two bronzes for the women’s artistic all-around and uneven bars. And while there are no medals for winning TikTok memes, it’s safe to say Lee thoroughly dominated this one as well.