2021 OLYMPICS: Medals expected with first Hmong American gymnast in the U.S. women's team

TEAM USA

Olympian Sunisa Lee on the balance beam.

To no one's surprise, Simone Biles, a once-in-a-century athlete, dominated the gymnastic tryouts over the weekend, but coming in a strong second is the first Hmong American to make the U.S. Olympic team.

Sunisa Lee, 18, did well enough in all the events to raise the possibility of the American squad winning the gold and silver medals at the Tokyo Olympics next month with the gold, presumably going to Biles, the G.O.A.T. in women's gymnastics.

The University of Auburn-bound Lee locked up one of the two guaranteed spots for the team with her second-place finish in the two-day event. And it took an uncharacteristically off-night for Biles – with an error on uneven bars and a fall on balance beam -- for Lee to hold the advantage in those two events.

Besides being the first Hmong American to reach such prominence in the sport, the road to making the Olympic team has not been easy for Lee from St. Paul, Minnesota.

Lee’s life turned upside down right as her elite gymnastics career was taking off. Just days before heading to her first senior U.S. championships in 2019, Lee’s dad, John, became partially paralyzed after falling from a ladder. The Minnesota native decided to still compete, and all she did was finish as runner-up to Biles. 

Lee has since gone on to win a full slate of world championships medals — gold with the team, silver on floor, bronze on uneven bars — before claiming another runner-up finish at the U.S. championships earlier this month.

The journey to get here has come with more hardship, though. While John Lee has made progress in his recovery, an aunt the gymnast was close with died of COVID-19. Two weeks later, her uncle died too. This all came as the Lee was grappling with the reality that the Tokyo Games she’d been working toward had been pushed back a year. 

“You don't think something like this would ever happen to you,” the gymnast who goes by Suni told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “And when it did, it was like everything hit all at one time.”

RELATED: Korean American makes US Men's Gymnastic Team.

With her parents in the crowd at nationals and trials, Lee, 18, has looked the part of an Olympian. While recovering from an ankle injury earlier this year, Lee said she heard the whispers about whether she could be an all-arounder at the Olympics. So the future Auburn Tiger went out and posted the second best all-around scores at both nationals and the trials. 

While Lee could no doubt factor into the all-around in Tokyo, the event to really pay attention is the uneven bars, where she starts with a world-class 6.7 difficulty score and connects a seemingly never ending chain of skills like it’s no big deal. If she can hit that routine in Tokyo, Lee could come home with an individual gold medal along with the gold medal for the team competition, in which the U.S. is the favorite.

Besides Lee and Biles, the rest of the women's gymnastic squad were introduced following the conclusion of Sunday’s competition at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in St. Louis. They also include Jordan Chiles and Grace McCallum. In addition, Jade Carey and MyKayla Skinner qualified for Tokyo as individuals.

TEAM USA

This year's women's gymnastic team might be better than the team that won the 2016 team title.

Waiting in the wings in case of injury or COVID-19 protocols, is Filipino American Emma Malabuyo, who was named one of the alternates. The UCLA-bound Texan finished in ninth place overall at the Trials. Her best events are vault, uneven bars and beam and her floor routine.

Chinese American Emily Lee, also competed at the Trials and finished 15th after she was unable to finish her final event due to an injury. 

Since winning the team silver medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the U.S. women are undefeated in the Olympic and world championships team competitions, a combined seven victories. The winning streak goes even longer in the individual all-around, with a U.S. woman having won every Olympic gold medal since Carly Patterson in 2004, and 10 of the 12 world titles during that span.