Welcome to our channel! Today we will tell you about a talented young athlete - Sunisa Lee.
She is an American artistic gymnast and part of the United States women's national
gymnastics team. She was a member of the team that won gold at the 2019 World Championships,
where she also won silver on the floor exercise and bronze on the uneven bars.
She won three medals at the USA Gymnastics National Championships during her first year
as a senior elite gymnast, including a national title on the uneven bars.
Sunisa Lee was born March 9, 2003 in St. Paul, Minnesota to Yeev Thoj, a healthcare worker,
and John Lee, a veteran who suffered partial paralysis following an accident in 2019.
She is of Hmong descent. She has five siblings, sisters Shyenne and Evionn and brothers Lucky,
Noah, and Justin. She began gymnastics when she was six.
Lee competed in the Hopes division in 2015 and became a junior elite in 2016.
She made her junior elite debut at the 2016 U.S. Classic.
In 2017, she made her international debut at the Gymnix International Junior Cup,
where the US won the gold medal in the team event and Lee won the silver medal on uneven bars.
In May 2017, Lee verbally committed to Auburn University on a gymnastics scholarship.
Sunisa was named to the team to compete at the 2018 Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships.
There, she won the gold medal with the U.S. team in the team final and won the
silver medal on vault, balance beam, and floor exercise. She finished 4th in the all-around.
On July 28, Lee competed at the 2018 U.S. Classic where she finished fifth in the all-around.
She won the gold medal on balance beam despite not doing a dismount.
Then, Lee competed in August at the 2018 U.S. National Championships in Boston as one of the
favorites for the Junior national title along with Leanne Wong, Jordan Bowers, and Kayla DiCello. She
won the bronze medal in the all-around behind Wong and DiCello and won the gold medal on bars.
In February, USA Gymnastics announced that Lee would make her senior debut at the 2019 City of
Jesolo Trophy. There, she won the gold medal in the all-around and helped the U.S. win the gold
medal in the team final. Lee also won the gold medal on bars and floor, as well as the bronze
medal on beam behind reigning World Champion Liu Tingting of China and teammate Emma Malabuyo.
In June 2019, Sunisa competed at the American Classic on only bars and beam.
She placed second on beam and fifth on bars after falling off twice.
After the conclusion of the American Classic, Lee was named as one of the eight athletes
being considered for the team to compete at the 2019 Pan American Games along with Skye Blakely,
Kara Eaker, Aleah Finnegan, Morgan Hurd, Shilese Jones, Riley McCusker, and Leanne Wong.
At the 2019 GK US Classic, Sunisa Lee opted to only compete bars and beam,
where she placed second behind Morgan Hurd and joint-eighth with Hurd,
respectively. She was not named to the Pan-American Games team.
At the 2019 U.S. National Championships, Lee competed all four events on the first day of
competition and was in second place in the all-around behind Simone Biles and in first
place on uneven bars. On the second day of competition, she continued performing clean
routines and ended up winning the silver medal in the all-around behind Biles.
Sunisa also won the gold medal on bars ahead of Morgan Hurd and Biles,
placed fourth on beam behind Biles, Kara Eaker, and Leanne Wong, and won the bronze medal on
floor behind Biles and Jade Carey. As a result, she was named a member of the national team.
In September 2019, Lee competed at the US World Championships trials, where she placed second
in the all-around behind Simone Biles, losing by only 0.350 points. The following day she was
named to the team to compete at the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart alongside Biles,
Kara Eaker, MyKayla Skinner, Jade Carey, and Grace McCallum. She was the only first-year
senior named to the team and the only team member without prior World Championships experience.
During the qualification round at the World Championships, Lee helped the USA qualify to the
team final in first place, over five points ahead of second place China. Individually, Lee qualified
to the all-around final in second place behind teammate Biles despite a fall on the balance beam.
She also qualified in second place behind Biles to the floor exercise final, beating out teammate
Carey in a tiebreaker, and to the uneven bars final in third place behind reigning World
Champion Nina Derwael of Belgium and 2015 World Champion Daria Spiridonova of Russia. Even with
the fall on beam, Lee also would have qualified as a reserve for the balance beam finals, but
was excluded by the two-per-country rule, as Biles and Eaker had both qualified in higher positions.
In the team final, Lee competed on uneven bars,
balance beam, and floor exercise and helped the USA win the gold medal ahead of Russia and Italy.
Although she fell again on balance beam, her score on uneven bars (14.733) was the third
highest of the day behind Becky Downie of Great Britain and Spiridonova, and her score on floor
exercise (14.233) was also the third highest of the day, behind teammates Biles and Carey.
In the all-around final, Lee's floor exercise score was the second highest score of the day,
once again behind Biles, but she finished in eighth place overall
after an uncharacteristic fall off the uneven bars.
For the uneven bars final, Lee performed a clean routine and earned a score of 14.800,
winning the bronze medal behind Derwael and Downie. The following day, she competed in
the floor final and won the silver medal behind Biles and ahead of Angelina Melnikova of Russia.
In late January 2020 it was announced that Lee would compete at the Stuttgart World Cup taking
place in March. The Stuttgart World Cup was later canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany.
In November the same year Lee signed her National Letter of Intent with Auburn University.
In February 2021, Sunisa returned to competition at the 2021 Winter Cup, where she competed on bars
and beam. She placed first on bars, and despite only competing a layout dismount off of apparatus,
placed third on beam behind Skye Blakely and Jordan Chiles. In April Lee competed at the
American Classic and competed only on the uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. Lee placed
first on both uneven bars and balance beam with scores of 15.200 and 14.550 respectively.
She placed fifth on floor despite competing a simple layout for two of her tumbling passes.
In May Lee competed at the U.S. Classic on only the uneven bars and balance beam.
However she fell off both apparatuses and placed tenth and eighth respectively.
In June Sunisa Lee competed at the 2021 National Championships. During the first day of competition
Lee competed a 6.8 difficulty uneven bars routine, scoring a 15.3. At the end of night
one Lee was second in the all-around behind Simone Biles. On the second day of competition Lee scored
a 14.3 on vault, 14.7 on balance beam, 13.7 on floor exercise, and 14.9 on uneven bars despite
not doing her full difficulty. Lee finished the competition second in the all around,
first on the uneven bars, and second on the balance beam. As a result Lee qualified to
compete at the upcoming Olympic Trials and subsequently scored a spot on the US Olympic Team.
In late June, Lee competed at the 2021 Olympic Trials for gymnastics. On day one,
Sunisa performed well on all 4 events, especially on the uneven bars where she scored a 15.3.
She ended the night in second place to Simone Biles. On night two of competition, she provided
4 more solid performances, posting the highest scores on the balance beam and uneven bars.
Lee scored a 58.166 on day 2, scoring higher than Simone Biles' 57.533, making her one of
the 3 gymnasts to ever beat Simone Biles in any phase of an all around competition.
Lee was named to the main Olympic team alongside Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles, and Grace McCallum.
The Summer Olympics in Tokyo will be held from July 23 to August 8, 2021.
We wish her good luck and sporting success!
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