Sunisa Lee Won The Gold Medal For Team USA In The Women’s All-Around Gymnastics Final
OK, Tokyo 2020 Olympics, you have our attention. Team USA’s Sunisa Lee won the gold medal in the individual all-around gymnastics final this morning! Suni, who is the first Hmong American to ever compete in the Olympics, became the fifth consecutive American woman to do so. And in the process, shut down a bunch of haters who were fussing about Simone Biles ruining things for everyone. Simone faced critical backlash when she decided to withdraw from competition for her mental well-being after experiencing “the twisties” during the team competition. So suck it America! But also, yay America!
Team USA may be bringing home the delta variant, but they are also bringing home some serious hardware. Earlier in the week, Suni and her teammates also won the silver medal in the team competition. According to The New York Times:
For years, Sunisa Lee, a teenager from Minnesota who became the Olympic all-around gymnastics champion on Thursday night, wasn’t training just for herself.
Lee, a Hmong American, went to the gym every day for all the first-generation Americans who wanted to achieve success when their parents had come to the United States with nothing. And she trained through grueling practices and painful injuries for her father, John, who suffered a spinal cord injury in 2019 and now uses a wheelchair.
Lee, 18, came into the Olympics wanting to win a gold medal for her father, who is her biggest fan, and for all the Hmong Americans who she feels are unseen in the United States. But she had publicly stated that her goal was to win silver in the all-around because her teammate Simone Biles, the four-time Olympic medalist, had been considered a lock to win that title.
But after a lifetime of chasing Biles in the all-around because Biles hasn’t lost that marquee event since 2013, Lee took advantage of her shot to do so in Tokyo. Biles, considered the best gymnast of all time, withdrew from the team event and the all-around because of mental stress, leaving Lee in position to win it all.
“It didn’t even think I’d ever get here,” Lee said. “It doesn’t even feel like I’m in real life.”
Here’s Suni’s family back home in Minnesota popping the fuck off as they watched her clinch the title:
She did it. @sunisalee_ is the queen of the women’s gymnastics all-around finals and her parents. OMG. Tears every where. 🥺 #Gold #TokyoOlympics #hmong pic.twitter.com/n2xM7VJOPq
— Gia Vang (@Gia_Vang) July 29, 2021
And here’s Suni doing her thing. Just an idea to make sports more accessible to viewers — all athletes, regardless of gender, should have to include a minimum density of sequins in their costumes as Suni does here. I don’t need to see skin, but I do need to be dazzled!
unreal. 😭💕 https://t.co/d6lJMPHgYr
— Sunisa lee (@sunisalee_) July 29, 2021
Suni’s teammate Simone didn’t waste any time congratulating her, both in person and on Instagram, where she also posted a message of thanks for the outpouring of love and support she’s received since making the decision to pull out of the individual competition.
I think there may be something wrong with me? There seems to be something wrong with my eyes. But worry, I have 911 on standby in case this disturbing bout of patriotism persists.
Pic: YouTube