Sunisa Lee
Sunisa Phabsomphou Lee is an American artistic gymnast. She is the 2020 Olympic all-around gold medalist and uneven bars bronze medalist and the 2024 Olympic all-around and uneven bars bronze medalist. She was the 2019 World Championship silver medalist on the floor and bronze medalist on uneven bars. Lee was a part of the "Golden Girls" that won gold at the 2024 Summer Olympics. She was also a member of the teams that won gold at the 2019 World Championships and silver at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She is also a two-time U.S. national champion on the uneven bars. In NCAA Gymnastics, she competed for the Auburn Tigers gymnastics team, winning a SEC title on uneven bars and an NCAA championship on balance beam. She is the third female gymnast to win NCAA, World, and Olympic championship titles, following Kyla Ross and Madison Kocian.
Lee is the first Hmong-American Olympian. She is also reported to be the first woman of Hmong descent and first Asian American woman to win the Olympic all-around title. She is a six-time member of the U.S. women's national gymnastics team, and with nine world championship and Olympic medals, she is the seventh-most-decorated American female gymnast.
Lee has received numerous honors and awards. In 2021, she was named Female Athlete of the Year by Sports Illustrated, named Sportswoman of the Year by the Women's Sports Foundation, and included in Time 100, Time
Early life and family
Lee was born Sunisa Phabsomphou on March 9, 2003, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to Yeev Thoj, a healthcare worker. Lee is of Hmong descent, and her mother, a refugee, immigrated to the United States from Laos as a child. Lee was raised by her mother's longtime partner, John Lee, from the age of two and considers him to be her father. She began using his surname professionally as a teenager. Lee has three half-siblings through her mother's relationship with Lee, and Lee had two children from a previous relationship. Her sister Evionn also competed in artistic gymnastics at the regional level.Lee's interest in gymnastics was piqued at age six after watching Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson on YouTube, and her father built a balance beam for her from a mattress. When Lee started doing backflips outdoors, it became clear to her parents that she needed a safer venue to hone her skills. They registered her for gymnastics classes at Midwest Gymnastics Center in Little Canada, Minnesota, where she started training under coach Punnarith Koy. The following year, Lee won the all-around at a state meet, the second competition of her career. At age eight, she moved up three levels, and she qualified for elite at age 11. Koy coached Lee from age six to about 12, when she switched to Jess Graba, who has coached her ever since.
Gymnastics career
Junior career
2015–2018
Lee competed in the Hopes division in 2015, became a junior elite in 2016, and made her junior elite debut at the 2016 U.S. Classic. She earned a spot on the junior national team in 2017 and debuted internationally at the Gymnix International Junior Cup where the U.S. team won the gold medal in the team event. Lee captured the silver on uneven bars. In May 2017, Lee announced her verbal commitment to Auburn University on a gymnastics scholarship.Lee was named to the team to compete at the 2018 Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships, which took place in April 2018. She won gold with the U.S. team in the team final. She also secured the silver medal on vault, balance beam, and in the floor exercise. She placed 4th in the all-around. A month later, she withdrew from the Pan American Junior Championships in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after sustaining an ankle injury.
In July 2018, Lee competed at the 2018 U.S. Classic where she finished fifth in the all-around and won the gold medal on balance beam despite not doing a dismount. She was one of the favorites for the national junior title along with Leanne Wong, Jordan Bowers, and Kayla DiCello heading into the 2018 U.S. Championships in Boston. She came third in the all-around behind Wong and DiCello. She won gold on the uneven bars.
Senior career
2019
Lee made her international senior debut at the 2019 City of Jesolo Trophy in Italy where she won the all-around title and took home the gold with the U.S. team in the team final. In the event finals, she placed first on the uneven bars and on floor, and third on the balance beam behind reigning world champion Liu Tingting of China and teammate Emma Malabuyo.Lee won the silver on beam at the 2019 American Classic in June and finished fifth on bars after falling off twice. After the conclusion of the event, Lee was among the eight athletes under consideration for the team to be fielded at the 2019 Pan American Games, but would have to compete at the 2019 U.S. Classic to secure her place. In the end, Lee was not named to the team after placing second on bars and tying for eighth on beam at U.S. Classic.
It was a year plagued by injuries. Lee injured her ankle and sustained a hairline fracture to her left tibia after a dismount from the balance beam. She was still recovering from her injuries by the time the 2019 U.S. Championships rolled around in August. Still, Lee competed on all four events, and after the first day of competition, she 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 to perform clean routines and finished second in the all-around behind Biles. She won gold on bars ahead of Morgan Hurd and placed fourth on beam behind Biles, Kara Eaker, and Leanne Wong. She also won the bronze on floor behind Biles and Jade Carey. As a result, she was named to the national team. A month later at the world team selection camp, Lee finished second by 0.350 points in the all-around behind Biles. The next day, Lee was chosen to represent the U.S. at the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart alongside Biles, Kara Eaker, MyKayla Skinner, Jade Carey, and Grace McCallum. Lee was the only first-year senior named to the team and the only team member without prior World Championships experience.
Lee competed in her first world championships in October 2019. The U.S. took first at team qualifications with a score of 174.205, more than five points ahead of China in second with 169.161. Lee advanced to the individual all-around final in second place after Biles despite a fall on the balance beam. She also qualified second 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. Lee competed on uneven bars, balance beam, and floor and helped the U.S. to gold in the team final ahead of Russia and Italy. She had another fall on the beam, but her scores on bars and floor exercise were the third highest of the day on the two events. She finished in eighth place in the all-around final after an uncharacteristic mistake on the uneven bars. Two days later, in the uneven bars final, Lee performed a clean routine and posted a score of 14.800. She won the bronze medal behind Derwael and Becky Downie. She also won the silver in the floor exercise final behind Biles.
2020
In late January, it was announced that Lee would compete at the Stuttgart World Cup scheduled to take place in March, but the event was canceled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lee's gym closed temporarily for three weeks as part of the pandemic response and when she returned, she broke a bone in her left foot which left her out of action for two months. An injury to her Achilles tendon sidelined her for another two months. In November, Lee committed to Auburn University and signed her National Letter of Intent.2021
Lee returned to competition in February at the 2021 Winter Cup, where she competed on uneven bars and balance beam. She placed first on bars and third on beam behind Skye Blakely and Jordan Chiles, despite doing a relatively low-scoring dismount. She went on to compete at the 2021 American Classic in April. She placed first on bars and beam with scores of 15.200 and 14.550, and finished fifth on floor even though she opted to simplify two tumbling passes. A month later, in May, Lee competed at the 2021 U.S. Classic on the uneven bars and balance beam. She fell off both apparatus and placed tenth and eighth respectively.The 2021 U.S. Championships took place in early June. Lee executed a bars routine with a 6.8 difficulty value, scoring 15.300. She went on to win the silver in the all-around behind Simone Biles. She placed first on the uneven bars, second on the balance beam, and qualified for the upcoming U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials. A few weeks later, Lee competed on all four events at the two-day Olympic Trials. She achieved an uneven bars score of 15.300 on day one and found herself in second place in the all-around behind Biles. On day two, she earned a combined score of 58.166 and beat Biles' 57.533. This was only the third time in Biles' senior career and the first time since 2013 that another gymnast had posted a higher all-around score. However, Lee's combined score over the two days was less than Biles' and she finished second overall, securing her spot on the 2020 U.S. Olympic team alongside Biles. Also named to the team were Jordan Chiles and Grace McCallum.
2020 Olympic Games
The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo from the summer of 2020 to July 23-August 8, 2021. Lee competed on all four events during qualifications; the U.S. advanced to the team final in second place behind the Russian Olympic Committee. Lee finished third overall behind Simone Biles and Rebeca Andrade and qualified for the individual all-around final. She progressed to the uneven bars final in second place behind Nina Derwael and the balance beam final in third behind Guan Chenchen and Tang Xijing.Lee was initially to compete only on uneven bars and balance beam in the team final, but when Biles withdrew from the competition after the first rotation, Lee replaced her on floor exercise. She hit all three of her routines and scored 15.400 on bars and 14.133 on beam. The U.S. won the silver medal behind The Russian Olympic Committee. In the all-around final, Lee posted a score of 14.600 on the vault, 15.300 on the uneven bars, 13.833 on beam and 13.700 on floor, leading all competitors with a 57.433 total overall. She won the women's individual all-around gold ahead of Brazil's Rebeca Andrade and Angelina Melnikova of the Russian Olympic Committee. Lee is the sixth U.S. woman to claim the Olympic all-around title following Mary Lou Retton, Carly Patterson, Nastia Liukin, Gabby Douglas, and Simone Biles. She is also the first Hmong-American Olympian, the first Asian American woman to take the Olympic all-around crown, and was reported to be the first all-around Asian champion of any nationality. Lee was the first competitor in the starting order in the uneven bars final and uncharacteristically failed to connect several elements. She scored 14.500 and captured the bronze. She received a score of 13.866 in the balance beam final and placed fifth after a large balance check on one of her elements.
In recognition of her historic Olympic success, the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, and the mayor of St. Paul, Melvin Carter, declared Friday, July 30, 2021, as "Sunisa Lee Day". Lee registered for classes at Auburn University in August 2021 and left elite gymnastics to compete in the NCAA.