Whereas Simone Biles understandably takes up a number of air within the dialog of USA Gymnastics, there’s one other athlete on the staff who makes it onerous to overshadow her: Auburn gymnast Sunisa “Suni” Lee.
Lee emerged as a star within the sport in the course of the 2020 Tokyo Video games (which came about in 2021), from which Biles was compelled to withdraw with a case of the twisties. Lee, the primary ever Hmong-American to compete for the US within the Olympics, is already among the many most embellished People in USA gymnastics historical past at age 21. She has six World Championships and Olympic medals (three in every), and she or he was the 2022 NCAA steadiness beam champion.
If Lee medals within the 2024 Paris Olympics, she would transfer right into a tie with Shawn Johnson and Chellsie Memmel for eighth in medal rely in main occasions amongst US. gymnasts. Lee’s teammate, Shilese Jones, has a possibility to do the identical, as she additionally enters with six medals between gymnastics’ main occasions.
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How did Lee find yourself in such a vaunted place on Workforce USA? Her efficiency on the 2020 Video games in Tokyo thrust her into the general public eye, and from there Lee has accomplished nothing to disabuse viewers of the notion she is elite.
Suni Lee 2020 Tokyo Olympics medal rely
Lee took three medals within the 2020 Tokyo Video games, together with a gold medal within the particular person all-around class.
Lee was additionally acknowledged as a part of a USA squad that took silver amongst groups, and gained bronze on the uneven bars. The one occasion Lee didn’t medal in that she participated in was the steadiness beam, for which she got here in fifth.
Lee joined Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade and the Russian Olympic Committee’s Angelina Melnikova as the one girls’s gymnasts to medal in a number of particular person occasions at Tokyo 2020. Andrade and Lee had been the one ones to win particular person gold whereas incomes that achievement.
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Suni Lee 2020 Olympics scores
Lee competed in 4 occasions on the 2020 Olympics: the staff, all-around, uneven bars, and steadiness beam.
Stability beam scores
Lee scored a 6.4 and seven.466 (13.866) for her steadiness beam routines, placing her in fifth place. Her teammate Biles took bronze on the beam, whereas China took gold and silver through Guan Chenchen and Tang Xijing, respectively.
Uneven bars scores
Within the uneven bars, Lee got here in third to earn bronze with scores of 6.2 and eight.3 (14.500). She completed behind Belgium’s Nina Derwael (15.200) and the Russian Olympic Committee’s Anastasia Ilyankova (14.833).
Particular person all-around scores
The all-around is the place Lee really shined, edging out Brazil’s Andrade with a rating of 57.433. Andrade completed with a rating of 57.298 for silver.
Inside the all-around, Lee scored 14.600 on the vault, 15.300 on the uneven bars, 13.833 on the steadiness beam, and 13.700 on the ground train.
Workforce all-around scores
Lastly, there was the staff all-around, by which the US completed second behind the Russian Olympic Committee.
Lee scored 15.400 on the uneven bars (tied with Derwael for greatest amongst all opponents), 14.133 on the steadiness beam (second-best amongst all opponents behind the ROC’s Viktoria Listunova), and 13.666 on ground workout routines.
Lee’s depth and breadth of expertise helped her to set herself aside from the sphere in 2021. Now, three years later, she is hoping to do the identical as a extra established a part of Workforce USA.