Who is Sony Lee? Meet the first Hmong American Olympic gymnast

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Sunisa “Sonny” Lee, USA Gymnastics Team USA Champion, is 18 years old, taking first prize in the all-around competition during her Olympic debut in Tokyo.

Lee secured a place in the all-around competition after finishing third in the qualifiers, but was not expected to take the gold while competing alongside GOAT, Simone Biles.

However, Biles, 24, withdrew from the all-around competition after abruptly withdrew from the team finals the day before, due to a struggle with her mental health – and went off on a free-for-all as gold suddenly came in handy. me and her competitor.

In the absence of the Bills, Lee rose to the challenge and took gold for Team USA in the all-around competition, which the women’s gymnastics team has dominated every year since the 2004 Athens Olympics when Carly Patterson snatched the lead.

Sonny Lee won the gold medal in all-around gymnastics at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Here’s everything you need to know about the newest golden girl on Team USA.

Sonny Lee is the first Hmong American gymnast to compete in the Olympics

Elle reports that Lee’s parents, John and Yife, are both hailed from Laos but also from the Hmong, an ethnic group found largely in the mountainous regions of Southeast Asia and parts of China that fought alongside the United States in the Vietnam War.

Li has always dreamed of being the first female Hmong Olympian, and that wish has finally come true for her.

Sonny Lee celebrates during the women’s all-around final on Day 6 of the Tokyo Games. Jimmy Square / Getty Images

“It would be the greatest achievement for any Hmong in the United States ever,” her father formerly told Elle for a personal story about the stellar gymnast.

“It will go down in history.”

The quest to represent her culture was even more important to Lee as she and her community struggled as a national wave of violence erupted against Asia amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“People hate us for no reason,” Lee told Ellie about anti-Asian sentiment.

“It would be great to show that we are more than they say.”

Sonny Lee has always dreamed of being the first female Hmong Olympian in her quest to represent her culture. Lawrence Griffiths / Getty Images

Lee grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, where there is a large community of Hmong who settled there as refugees in the late 1970s and 1980s. During the Vietnam War, many Hmong people lost their land and fled to Thailand before landing in the United States.

Lee described the Hmong community as “really close” and said their “support” was “amazing”.

Suni Lee got her start in gymnastics at the age of six

Lee got her start at Midwest Gymnastics in Little Canada, Minnesota, when she was just 6 years old under coach Bonarith Coy.

The coach enjoyed a front-row seat watching the early gymnast’s natural dynamics and balance, which propelled her from a boisterous child to an American champion.

Suni Lee got her start in gymnastics when she was six years old

Coy previously told The Post that he watched Lee perform a front-to-rear antenna handwriting on the high beam at age 9 – a move that helped Gabe Douglas win gold in London in 2012.

“She had that really good, fast strength,” remembers Koy, who is still training in the gym.

“It came naturally. And she has this fear towards her.”

I quickly caught the attention of Jess Grappa, a trainer at Midwest Gymnastics, who has been coaching her ever since.

“It was very rude and she was a little girl, but she had some talent,” Grappa told Elle, remembering when they met.

“Her swings were kind of crazy – she’s been training in her yard – and she obviously has some ability to move upside down without fear.”

Bonarith Koi, Sunny Lee’s first gymnastics coach, said she “has that guts about it”. Laurence Griffiths / Getty Images

When Lee was 14, she joined the US junior national team in 2016 and has traveled around the world to compete.

By 2018, she had won the gold medal in the National Championships on the uneven bars – her best event – and a year later, she came within four-tenths of a point from beating Biles in the US World Championship selection camp.

Sania Lee lost her relatives to COVID-19 and her father was paralyzed after a tragic accident

While much of the world has suffered through the COVID-19 pandemic, the devastation was very personal for Lee.

The gold medalist lost both her aunt and uncle to the virus less than two weeks later.

Lee was very close to her relatives, who used to take care of her as a child and took an active part in her gymnastics career.

Sonny Lee tragically lost her aunt and uncle to coronavirus Jimmy Square/Getty Images

Elle reports that Lee’s uncle was a Hmong shaman who helped her heal an injured foot using herbal medicine and hot ginger.

Before her uncle passed away from the virus, she was only able to say goodbye on Zoom.

But while the Olympian was mourning the death of her relatives, she was also helping care for her father, John Lee, who was paralyzed after an accident.

Two days before the 2019 National Championships, her father fell off a ladder while trimming a tree, paralyzing him from the chest down.

Sonny Lee’s father Jun encouraged her to compete in the 2019 National Championship after suffering a paralysis.

At first, her father’s accident seemed to halt her Olympic dreams because the event is an unofficial qualifier for the Games and Graba didn’t think it was safe to compete with Lee while she was distracted.

But Lee’s dad encouraged her to go to the competition, and just before she stepped onto the carpet, they spoke via FaceTime, where the proud pop told her to stay focused and remember to have fun.

Follow all the events of the 2020 Olympic Games

“She can stay focused when she puts her mind to it,” he told Elle.

She went on to win a silver medal all over and it remained one of the toughest chores in the world, paving the way for her entry to the Olympics.

What did Sony Lee accomplish in Tokyo and what next?

When gymnast Biles dropped out of the team finals and all-around competition, Lee became the de facto leader and helped Team USA take the silver behind Russia, who took the gold.

Sonny Lee (center) celebrates her gold medal alongside silver medalist Rebecca Andrade (left) and bronze medalist Angelina Melnikova at the 2020 Summer Olympics.

After winning first place in everything, Lee will soon be back on the carpet to compete in the singles event finals, where she is expected to crush the uneven bars and routines for which she is most famous.

Once she finished her Olympic competitions, she signed Lee to attend and compete at Auburn University in Alabama.

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