18-year-old gymnast Sunisa Lee overcame the odds to take first place in the individual
all-around event at the 2021 Olympics, becoming the first Asian-American woman to ever take
home gymnastics gold.
Here's everything you need to know about this exceptional athlete.
When Sunisa Lee took the floor in Tokyo, she had a community besides her family, friends,
and serious gymnastics fans cheering her on.
A proud member of the close-knit Hmong community in Minneapolis & St. Paul, Minnesota, Lee
became the first Hmong American to compete in the Olympics.
Lee takes her duty to represent her community seriously.
She told the South China Morning Post,
"As a proud Hmong-American, I'm trying to spread positivity about Hmong people and tell
people what it's like to be Hmong."
When you have a small child who just won't stop bouncing off the walls, you have two
options: Give the kid a time-out or find a way to channel that energy into something productive.
Suni Lee was one of those kids.
By the time she was 6, her mother revealed to the Bleacher Report, she was practically
"addicted to doing backflips," tumbling around like an aspiring gymnast whenever she got the chance.
To put Lee's energy to good use and give her something to do, the family began watching
gymnastics videos together, and her father constructed a balance beam for her out of an old mattress.
But soon the family realized Lee needed a safer venue to practice her skills, so they
brought her to nearby Midwest Gymnastics, where she caught the attention of coach Jess
Graba, who saw her potential immediately.
While Graba initially assigned her to another coach to correct the "many weird habits" she'd
acquired from teaching herself gymnastics, according to the Bleacher Report, he eventually
became her personal coach - and has remained so to this day.
Training and competing in gymnastics, especially at elite levels, doesn't come cheap.
According to Forbes, training and travel expenses for high-level gymnasts can cost up to $1,000 a month.
This expense would require some planning and sacrifice for most middle-class families,
but for Sunisa Lee's immigrant parents - who also have her five siblings to support - it
was especially challenging.
Even though her coach waived her gym fees, Lee's family had to hold fundraisers and carefully
consider every cost pertaining to her training and competitive life.
Fortunately, a huge community of supporters has had Lee's back.
Her talent and accomplishments have made her a source of pride in the Twin Cities' close-knit
Hmong community, who not only send her letters of encouragement, but have planned fundraisers for her meets.
Their efforts are all the more remarkable given the Hmong community has reportedly never
been a wealthy one.
But after experiencing war, exile, and the challenges of rebuilding their lives in a
new country, helping one of their own become a star on the international stage is well
worth the sacrifice.
Sunisa Lee has amassed a growing number of fans and admirers, but her biggest fan is
the one who's known her the longest.
Her father, John Lee, recognized her talent early and built her first balance beam for
her so she could practice in their backyard.
John also taught Sunisa a skill many parents would discourage: how to do flips by bouncing off a bed.
And as her skills matured and she began competing, John was a regular and enthusiastic presence at her meets.
Sunisa told KARE-11 that she and her dad have the closest bond out of anyone in her family,
and that the dream of competing in the Olympics has been a shared ambition of both of theirs
for as long as she can remember.
In an interview with the Bleacher Report, she called him her "best friend."
Sunisa's lifelong coach, Jess Graba, also attested to John Lee's stalwart support, calling
him "the rock of the family."
On the rare occasion when John can't join his daughter at her competitions, his love
still keeps Sunisa motivated.
But that motivation was tested in 2019 prior to the U.S. Gymnastics Championships.
Two days before Sunisa was to leave for the competition, he fell from a ladder while trimming
a tree, resulting in injuries that paralyzed him from the chest down.
This was devastating for both father and daughter, and Sunisa's coach suggested she withdraw
from the championships, since a distracted gymnast runs the risk of making careless mistakes
that can result in serious injury.
But from his hospital bed, John encouraged Sunisa to power through.
"I told her just go ahead and do your thing. Don't worry about me.
I'll be okay."
As John explained to KARE-11,
"She's worked so hard for this.
I tell her don't worry about me, just go and do well."
That she did - from his hospital bed, John watched her take silver overall and earn a
gold medal in the uneven bars.
While still wheelchair-bound, John has regained some motion and was strong enough to attend
the 2021 national championships - his first trip to a live competition since his accident.
"Whether you win first or not, you're still number one in my book."
For Sunisa Lee and her family, the COVID-19 pandemic hit especially hard, with lasting
effects on her gymnastics career and family.
After Lee's strong showing in the 2019 national championships, she was primed for success
in the 2020 Olympics.
According to the Bleacher Report, 2020 was the year that should have been Lee's professional
zenith - she was physically in her prime, with enough competitive experience at the
elite level to be a contender.
So the cancellation of the games in 2020 was a frustrating blow.
Lee confessed in an interview with Elle,
"To have that taken away from us without having any control is very hard.
I went through a depressed phase, and it was hard to get out of."
But other COVID-19 tragedies in Lee's family made this trivial by comparison: Her aunt
and uncle, both of whom were close to her and had babysat for her as a child, succumbed
to the disease within weeks of each other.
The last time Lee got to see them, according to Elle, was on Zoom.
Forget her fearlessness or prowess on the uneven bars - Sunisa Lee's superpower is mental toughness.
Despite family tragedies and frustrating obstacles, not to mention the insane expectations and
grueling workload that all elite athletes endure, Lee has gained a reputation for her
steely resolve and coolness under pressure - an inner strength so remarkable that even
Lee's longtime idol, five-time Olympic medalist Nastia Liukin, took notice.
Liukin said in an interview with Elle,
"Her abilities as a gymnast, especially her bar routine, are incredible.
But it's the unparalleled mental strength that she has shown during the most difficult
time of her life that make her the person she is."
For many, the devastating losses and setbacks Lee has faced over the years - her father's
crippling accident, the deaths of a favorite aunt and uncle from COVID-19, her own broken
ankle, and the postponement of the Olympics - would have been ample justification for
pulling out of competition and focusing on recovery.
Lee told The New York Times,
"Thinking about all the bad things that have happened to me has actually made me more positive
about the Olympics.
It reminds me that I could handle tough times and still be okay because I've handled many
tough times before.
I fought off the negative thoughts and the sadness, and just focused.
[...] I am tougher because of it."
Even casual fans of women's gymnastics know that elite competitors fall into two categories:
Simone Biles and everyone else.
So preternaturally dominant is Biles that the biggest question on most observers' minds
at meets is, "Who will come in second?"
At the 2021 Olympic trials in June, it was Sunisa Lee whose solid performance earned
her second place in the all-around competition.
This was a happy surprise for Lee, who was still recovering from an ankle injury.
But even more surprising for her, she was not only "the best of the rest," she gave
Biles a serious run for her money.
By the end of the first day of the two-day competition, Lee had unexpectedly pulled ahead
of Biles, which was the first time since 2013 anyone had outdone Biles at any stage of an all-round competition.
While this wasn't Lee's first time finishing ahead of Biles - she, not Biles, took first
place in the uneven bars at the trials, and she is also a two-time national champion in
that event - knowing she could get so close to Biles in the all-around was a good feeling
and an overall confidence booster for the talented gymnast.
You may think that elite gymnasts, all competing for the same tiny handful of medals and Olympic
team slots, would constantly be at each other's throats - but nothing is further from the truth.
Turns out, the only people who can truly understand and empathize with the challenges of being
a top gymnast are other top gymnasts.
Sunisa Lee says that she's come to rely on her teammates on the national team for friendship
and emotional support.
But during the COVID-19 lockdown - and the resulting postponement of the Olympics and
closure of her training gym - Lee became especially close friends with Simone Biles.
They spent the lockdown era chatting via text and Snapchat, commiserating over the frustration
of missing out on the Olympics and normal life in general.
Sunisa Lee is known as a standout all-around gymnast, but it's on the uneven bars where
she truly shines, coming in first at the Olympic trials and taking the national championship twice.
So masterful are Lee's skills that she'd planned to introduce a challenging new move of her
invention into her routine at the 2020 Stuttgart World Cup - a skill that would have been named
after her had she completed it successfully.
Unfortunately for Lee, like the Olympics, the Stuttgart Cup was also cancelled due to the pandemic.
But despite her enviable talent on the uneven bars, Lee considers it the hardest and most nerve-wracking event.
She told the Bleacher Report,
"When you're off, you know the whole thing's going to be off, like you can feel it.
... You have to be really mentally strong from the beginning."
Upon restarting her training after last year's lockdown, returning to the bars was especially daunting for Lee.
She told the New York Times,
"The uneven bars make me especially nervous because when you stop training, you lose sense
of where the bar is going to be.
And I grew an inch and a half this year, so I have had to make adjustments."
Sunisa Lee won't have much time after the Olympics to rest on her laurels, since other
big life changes lie ahead.
As a top-ranked gymnast and high school graduate, she could have had her choice of athletic
scholarships from solid schools looking to build their gymnastics programs.
But from the time she was a teenager, Lee had only one school in her sights: Auburn University.
So serious was Lee's desire to attend that she made a verbal commitment to accept an
athletic scholarship from the school when she was just 14.
Lee's longstanding affection for Auburn has its roots in her long and comfortable relationship
with her coach, Jess Graba.
Jess' twin brother, Jeff Graba, happens to be Auburn's gymnastics coach.
As Jess revealed in an interview with The Auburn Plainsman,
"Suni had offers from pretty much every college so she could have gone anywhere.
I think she felt a comfort zone with Jeff, just because he's my brother, and I think
she feels like it won't be a big transition for her."
But Lee's long-term goal transcends gymnastics - as she put it to the Plainsman,
"Being committed to Auburn has been one of my biggest dreams for a long time."
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