St. Paul gymnast Suni Lee has a very good chance to add more hardware to her already-impressive collection this week at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Not only did Lee perform well enough Sunday to help the U.S. qualify for the team final in convincing fashion, she did enough to earn the right to defend her gold medal in the all-around competition final. She also will compete in several individual finals.

Here’s a look at the next week or so for Lee’s schedule and when to watch her:

Tuesday, July 30: She will compete in the team final, with competition beginning at 11:15 p.m. CT.
Thursday, August 1: She will compete in the all-around final, with competition beginning at 11:15 p.m. CT.
Sunday, August 4: She will compete in the uneven bars final, with competition beginning at  8:40 a.m. CT.
Monday, August 5: She will compete in the balance beam final, with competition beginning at at 5:36 a.m. CT.

All events will be televised live on NBC and streamed live on Peacock. You can also catch replays of each event in primetime.

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Sahith Theegala entered this week ranked No. 11 in the world and No. 7 in the FedExCup standings. The 26-year-old is a rising superstar in the sport, who had struggled in his past appearances in Blaine.

And yet he still made the decision to tee it up in this week’s 3M Open.

That, in itself, is a major win for the tournament, and Hollis Cavner’s vision.

The 3M Open is not a “signature event” on the PGA Tour schedule. Those feature bigger payouts and essentially an obligation for the game’s top names to participate. Minnesota’s tour stop is a young event with a challenging location on the calendar, positioned directly after The Open.

The best players in the world simply aren’t going to be inclined to fly back across the pond the week after a major championship to play in Blaine.

Knowing that, Cavner — the tournament’s executive director — has had to get creative in his recruiting. Included in his strategy has been handing up-and-comers exemptions to play in the event when they’re not otherwise qualified.

Receiving one of those exemptions in 2020 was Theegala. At that point, Theegala was the reigning college golf player of the year getting starts on the Korn Ferry Tour. But he was invited to Blaine, where he missed the cut that week.

He returned to TPC Twin Cities as a tour member in 2022, and hasn’t missed the event since.

“I’ve said this numerous times, it’s a great tournament, golf course is awesome, logistics are great. The place is really pure and it was one of the first starts that I got on tour as well,” Theegala said. “This was my third start on a sponsor invite, so grateful for them to have me out.”

Oftentimes, such an invite can lead to a sense of obligation to continue to come back. But Theegala noted he doesn’t feel he “owes” the 3M Open anything. He’s returning year after year because he wants to.

“They’ve been so good to me and it’s a really, really well run event, one of the best run events and they treat you right. Logistics of it are great,” Theegala said. “The golf course is really pure, too. The grounds crew does a great job. Just all of that just keeps me coming back.”

And that’s part of the genius in Cavner’s plan.

By supplying exemptions to up and comers, he’s getting some potential up and comers out to the event so they can see — firsthand — how the tournament is operated. The gamble is that, if you do things right, guys will come back.

Tony Finau continues to come back year after year because of it, though he wasn’t a sponsor’s exemption.

The plan doesn’t always come to fruition. Other young players like Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland received exemptions into the tournament in its inaugural edition in 2019, and they’ve never been back. But even if just a few of the lottery tickets hit, the tournament is better for it.

Sponsor’s exemptions this year included Neal Shipley — a dominant amateur who recently turned pro — and Luke Clanton, the current No. 2 amateur in the world.

Maybe three years from now, they’ll be established stars returning to Blaine because they want to pay back Cavner and the tournament, or simply because they liked the event.

What’s funny about Theegala’s commitment to the 3M Open is this course hasn’t done him any favors in past visits. This year marked the first time Theegala even made the cut in four starts in Blaine.

He noted on Thursday this was a “revenge week” for him, and an opportunity to see if his improved driver could finally tame TPC Twin Cities.

“It’s funny, I’m not even like — this is probably the only week where I genuinely feel I’m not even worried about the score, I just want to beat the golf course. I’m not even looking at other guys or the board, don’t care what they shoot, I just want to feel like I’ve tackled this course,” Theegala said. “It’s fun, it’s a different challenge. I know some guys would shy away, but I have no problem taking it on. If I fail, so be it, but I really don’t want to let the course get the best of me again. … The first couple years I played out here I wasn’t fully aware of the level of the tour and how good the guys are. I walk off the golf course thinking this course is hard, like the course is hard. All of a sudden look up at the board, 7, 8, 9, 10 under.”

This year, Theegala finally cracked the code. He was near the top of the leaderboard all week and finished the tournament at 13-under par, good for a tie for sixth. Theegala needed eagle on No. 18 Sunday to keep hopes alive for victory, and his 230-plus yard approach from the left rough found the water. He went on to bogey the hole.

Still, he certainly beat the course.

Now the 3M Open and its patrons will wait and hope he wants to take on the task again in 2025.

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Now that he has a contract extension in his possession — a four-year deal that could be worth up to $113 million — star left tackle Christian Darrisaw is looking to take the next step in his career.

What does that look like for him?

Though he’d obviously like to continue his ascension among the best players at his position, Darrisaw is also trying to push himself to grow in an area outside of his comfort zone.

“I feel like the next step for me is my leadership role for this team,” Darrisaw said. “Just being a better leader and being more vocal for all my guys.”

That doesn’t come naturally for Darrisaw. He’s a reserved person at his core and has long preferred to let his play do the talking.

That said, head coach Kevin O’Connell has slowly started to see Darrisaw come out of his shell as of late, and he’s excited to see even more of that moving forward.

“The progression and upside of a player like Christian has been on full display with his impact on the game,” O’Connell said. “There’s so much room for him to grow in multiple facets of the game, and he’s more excited about that than anybody.”

Asked about Darrisaw taking on a bigger leadership role, star right tackle Brian O’Neill mentioned how Darrisaw is locker mates with rookie left tackle Walter Rouse at TCO Performance Center. That should give Darrisaw an opportunity to take Rouse under his wing with relative ease.

“He’s going to do a great job with that,” O’Neill said, while adding that Rouse is actually sandwiched in between he and Darrisaw. “We were joking around with (Rouse) this morning, like, ‘You nervous?’ ”

The mentorship from Darrisaw will also extend to practice on a daily basis. Whether he’s helping Rouse learn some of the fundamentals in the trenches, or he’s letting rookie edge rusher Dallas Turner pick his brain about potential counters moves, Darrisaw plans on making himself available

“Just let the guys know right from wrong,” Darrisaw said. “Somebody might take a bad step or something, or they might mess up on a play, I can go up to that guy and be like, ‘Yo. This is how we do it.’ ”

The steady growth of Darrisaw has been on display since the Vikings selected him with the No. 23 pick in the 2021 draft. He quickly established himself a force to be reckoned with up front, and now he’s in position to finish his career with the Vikings.

As for the contract extension that made that possible, Darrisaw credited the front office for the Vikings, as well as his agent Drew Rosenhaus, emphasizing that getting a deal done right before the start of training camp will allow him to focus on the task at hand.

“I can just play football now,” Darrisaw said. “I ain’t got to worry about nothing. Everything is taken care of. I can just go out there and do my job.”

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The depth at cornerback continues to get tested for the Vikings with training camp in full swing.

After going down with a leg injury on Thursday afternoon, veteran cornerback Shaq Griffin still has not returned to practice. He watched from the sidelines on Saturday afternoon as fans descended upon TCO Performance Center for the first time in training camp.

Asked about Griffin, head coach Kevin O’Connell emphasized that the Vikings will be cautious with him. Though it doesn’t appear to be anything too serious, Griffin will likely be asked to do a lot this seaosn, so the Vikings don’t want to rush him back by any means.

“We’re kind of monitoring him,” O’Connell said. “Hopefully we can get him back sooner than later.”

Ironically, Griffin got hurt while intercepting a pass during 11 on 11 drills. He broke on a ball over the middle with reckless abandon and hauled it in before coming up lame. The recovery process for Griffin will be determined by vice president of player health and development Tyler Williams.

The absence opens the door most notably for young cornerback Akayleb Evans as well as Andrew Booth Jr. Both players have taken some reps with the starers with veteran cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. playing on the opposite side of the field and safety Josh Metellus spending a lot of time in the slot.

What is O’Connell looking for out of players like Evans and Booth?

“Just turn it loose,” O’Connell said. “I talk to our guys a lot offensively about shooting their shot. It’s the same thing on defense. Just go try to make a play.”

There will be even more chances for the rest of the cornerbacks to stand out next week when the pads go on.

There’s also a pretty good chance the Vikings decide to add another player to mix to create more competition.

There are certainly some interesting names available on the open market.

“I do think we’re probably going to need to add at that position just purely to make sure we have enough of a headcount in that room to handle the rep load,” O’Connell said. “There could be some impact players out there that might be interested in joining our team, and that’s what (general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah) and his staff are working through right now.”

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