The 19-year-old American, currently studying at  Auburn University in Alabama, revealed in a video posting on Instagram that she will complete her sophomore year and then return to elite gymnastics.

"I am sharing a decision that has weighed on me for a really long time," Lee said.

"As an athlete that has competed at the highest level, on the world's biggest stage, I've been fortunate enough to experience that once-in-a-lifetime feeling and the indescribable emotion when a gold medal is draped around your neck.

"But I don't want it to just be once in a lifetime."

Lee was a surprise winner in the Japanese capital last year following the late withdrawal of her team-mate Simone Biles, the Rio 2016 all-around champion.

She became the sixth United States gymnast to capture all-around Olympic gold and the fifth in a row after Carly Patterson in 2004, Nastia Liukin in 2008, Gabby Douglas in 2012 and Biles in 2016.

"I have my sights set on Paris 2024 and I know what I have to do to get there," Lee said in her video.

Lee also helped the American team, which included Biles, to a silver medal in Tokyo and eanred an induvial bronze medal on the uneven bars.

She was also part of the 2019 US world championship team.

If Lee can defend her Olympic all-around title in 2024 in the French capital, she would become only the third woman to capture back-to-back Olympic titles in the event after Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union in 1956 and 1960 and Věra Čáslavská of Czechoslovakia in 1964 and 1968.