The U.S. gymnastics team for the 2020/2021 Tokyo Olympics (opens in new tab) is in turmoil: After gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from the team final (opens in new tab) and the individual all-around, attention turned to the other members, especially Sunisa "Suni" Lee, the first Hmong American to qualify for the Olympics. After Simone Biles withdrew from the team finals (open new tab) and the individual all-around, the focus turned to the other members, especially Sunisa "Suni" Lee, the first Hmong American to qualify for the Olympics. Lee did not disappoint, winning the gold medal in a bit of an upset: she became the sixth American gymnast in history to win a gold medal, and the fifth American in a row. Not only that, but her victory was all the more impressive because of the injury (broken ankle) that plagued her in 2020. Her performance may have been the most exciting and nail-biting competition of the Tokyo Olympics.

The 18-year-old gymnast attends Auburn University Gymnastics (opens in new tab) and is a member of the Class of 2025. Her parents are John Lee and Eve Toj, who immigrated from Laos. Her father, who she says "sacrificed everything" to get her into gymnastics, built a balance beam in their backyard when they couldn't afford one (opens in new tab). She began training when she was six years old and made the national women's gymnastics team six times.

Lee has also recently suffered a personal setback (opens in new tab), and it wasn't always clear that she was headed to the 2019 Olympics. Her father suffered a spinal cord injury in 2019 and is now paralyzed from the waist down, forcing Lee to compete in the National Championships almost immediately after.

In June 2020, she helped win the team gold medal at the World Championships (and came close to Biles for the first time in many years). She lost her uncle and aunt to COVID-19 (she had to zoom by to say goodbye) and thought she might have contracted the virus herself. In an interview, she said that winning the gold medal would benefit her father, her family, and the Hmong community. She said, "I suppressed my negative thoughts and sadness and just focused. I feel like it made me tougher. No, maybe not. It made me tougher," she told The New York Times (opens in new tab).

Lee also told ELLE (opens in new tab) that she is devastated by the recent rise in anti-Asian hatred, "People hate us for no reason. It would be cool to show that we are more than what they say we are". He said he was also depressed when the Olympics were postponed.

Surprisingly, Lee and Biles became close friends after the Olympics were announced, and the two chatted regularly in the months between the day the Games were supposed to begin and the day they actually began. At the Games, Lee took the floor in Biles' place after Biles announced his withdrawal and the U.S. team won the silver medal. It was the most pressure of my life," she explained (opens in new tab). Reporters say she has spent most of her career (like many other gymnasts) in Biles' shadow (opens in new tab). However, thanks in part to Lee's performance, the U.S. team won the silver medal.

Lee also shared an Instagram post to praise and support Biles after the withdrawal, saying (opens in new tab):" I am so proud of you and all you have accomplished." Thank you for being a role model and someone I look up to every day.

With a final score of 57.433, Lee edged Brazil's Rebecca Andrade by 0.1 points. The match was decided: after a difficult Yurchenko Double Twist on the vault, Lee gave a strong performance on the uneven bars with 15.3 (open in new tab) and on the vault with 13.833. Going into the final rotation on floor, which is Andrade's specialty, Lee gave an incredibly strong performance, beating her personal best in Tokyo, and Andrade was out of bounds. In short, Lee set personal bests in three of the four events to pull out the win. Lee's community threw a watch party at his home and went wild watching Lee win.

Lee has been enjoying his hard-won success ever since. In an interview with Hoda Kotb (opens in new tab), Lee dedicated her win to her father, saying, "This has been a dream of ours forever. He always said that when I won the gold medal, he would come out on the ground and do a backflip. It's sad that he's not here, but this is our dream and our medal."

But John told reporters, "I'm going to tell her I'm proud of her. I want to tell her team that no matter what, we are all rooting for her, and I want to tell Simone that she is truly the GOAT because I let my baby girl bring home the gold medal."