Two Asian American gymnasts make US gymnastic team, but not Suni Lee

The US women's gymnastic team going to Worlds are, from left: Joselyn Roberson, Leanne Wong, Shilese Jones, Kayla DiCello, Skye Blakely and Simone Biles.

One familiar name will be missing on the women's gymnastic team the United States will be sending to the Artistic World Championships this coming weekend. However, the 2020 Olympic all-around gold medalist Sunisa Lee will not be making the trip to Antwerp, Belgium.

The 20-year old Lee, the first Hmong American to win an Olympic gold for the US, had to withdraw from competition to recover from nagging health issues.

“It was a very difficult decision, but my health is more important and I’m not in the best shape right now,” said Lee in an Instagram story post last week.

“I have been in and out of the gym just because there’s just so many doctor’s appointments, and I’m taking a lot of medication, so it kind of varies every day,” Lee told Olympics.com last month. “I could wake up very swollen some days and not be able to put my fingers inside my grips. It’s really difficult to kind of work through, but on the days that I can do stuff and I am feeling good, I try and take advantage of that and just get everything done.”

Leading the US women's team will be Simone Biles, who at the age of 26 is making a triumphant return to competitive gymnastics after she dropped out of the 2020 Olympics for mental health reasons. The same kidney-related condition was a factor in Lee dropping out of competing for Auburn University last year.

Joining Biles on the US team are two less familiar Asian Americans but who have been competing internationally for years: 2021 World all-around silver and floor exercise bronze medalist Leanne Wong, and 2021 World Championships all-around bronze medalist Kayla DiCello, who was named traveling replacement athlete.

Rounding out the team will be 2022 World all-around and uneven bars silver medalist Shi Jones; 2022 team gold medalist Skye Blakely; 2021 World all-around silver and first-time Worlds competitor, 2023 US vault champion Joscelyn Roberson.

The Worlds US team wa named following a second day of select routines Sept. 20. Also named were the US women's team for the Pan Am Games slated for Oct. 21-25 in Santiago, Chile.

DiCello will also compete in Santiago along with Olympic silver medalist Jordan Chiles; 2023 US floor exercise runner up and Winter Cup champion Kaliya Lincoln; 2023 Pan American Championships all-around, balance beam and team gold medalist Tiana Sumanasekera; and 2023 Winter Cup and Core Hydration Classic uneven bars champion Zoe Miller.

Sixteen-year old Sumanasekera, from Pleasanton, California, is the first Sri Lanka-born athlete to represent the US.

Suni Lee

Suni Lee, a Minneapolis-native, however, has no regrets for passing up this year's competitions. Her next goal is to prepare herself for next season’s tryouts for the 2024 Olympics.

“(It) was definitely a hard decision, but I’m 100% sure I made the right call in order to be my best for the upcoming year,” said Lee.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me at Threads.net/eduardodiok, @DioknoEd on Twitter or at the  blog Views From the Edge.

Tokyo Olympics: Two Chinese American gymnasts quarantined after one tests positive for COVID-19

U.S. GYMNASTICS

United States gymnast Kayla Eaker tested positive for COVID-19.

Chinese American Kara Eaker, an alternate on the U.S. women's gymnastics team, tested positive for COVID-19.

Eighteen-year old Eaker tested positive after traveling to Japan with the rest of the team. In an interview on June 27, the Kansas City gymnast told KSHB 41 News she was vaccinated. 

“In a week she hasn't had contact with any of the six athletes and she only had brief contact with Leanne. As soon as that happened, they moved Leanne into another room. Leanne (Wong) and Kara are not even seeing each other," said Al Fong, one of the coaches accompanying the team. Wong tested negative but was quarantined out of caution.

Eaker's father said that his daughter was not exhibiting any symptoms. Under Olympic guidelines, both Fong and Wong could be released from quarantine after eight days if no symptoms occur.

Both of the athletes are two of the four alternates for the women's gymnastic team.  The others are Filipino American Emma Malabuyo and Kayla DiCello. 

There are 61 COVID-19 cases linked to the Olympic Games, according to Tokyo 2020 on Monday.

U.S. Gymnastics report that before Eaker's test results were announced, the teams had already arranged to move to separate training facilities, to prepare for the Olympics, which kick off this Friday

"I know she's disappointed, but at this point she says she's kind of bored because she's stuck in her room not being able to do anything, can't practice or anything like that. She says she's bored and just looking forward to coming home," Mark Eaker told KMBC. "The biggest disappointment is that this takes her out of it completely."

Asian American gymnasts in the running for the U.S. Women's Olympic team

Emma Matabuyo surprised at the U.S. Championships.

Two Asian Americans are among the gymnasts who might make the U.S. Women's Gymnastics Olympic Team.

There's Simon Biles' then, everybody else on the U.S. Women's Gymnastic Team that will compete in the Olympics this summer.

Biles, who does feats no one else can do on the competitive floor, is in a category all by herself, placing first in the U.S. Championships held last weekend.

While the Olympic team won't be announced until after the Olympic Trials being held June 24-27 in St. Louis, Missouri, barring injury, BIles is essentially a lock for the Tokyo Olympics.

In addition to winning a record-breaking seventh all-around national title at the 2021 U.S. Championships, Biles also extended her undefeated streak: she has won every all-around competition she’s entered since March 2013.

The remaining question is who will be joining her on the four-member Olympic team. 

Coming in the Championships' scoring is Suni Lee, which gives her a strong bet for the team. Lee was the only athlete not named “Simone Biles” to claim a national title at U.S. Championships. She posted the highest score on uneven bars and also finished second in the all-around, a particularly impressive achievement given that the 18-year-old Hmong American is currently coming back from a foot/Achilles injury.

“I think this is a really good confidence booster because I wasn’t even at my full potential on floor, and obviously my vault could have been a little better and today my bars was a little rough,” Lee said. “It definitely helps my confidence because I know I don’t have to be 100 percent to be in the top with Simone, so I’m really proud of myself.”

Jordan Chiles, who appears to be peaking at just the right time, rounds out the top three.

Filipino American gymnast Emma Malabuyo from Texas finished a surprising fourth. 

“Clearly Emma Malabuyo was super impressive,” high-performance team coordinator Tom Forster noted. “She came out of a very, very low position at the U.S. Classic, and it’s great to see her back in her international form that she was in a couple years ago since she’s wrestled with a couple injuries here and there. … There were a couple of surprises today but I’d say she was the best surprise that we weren’t expecting.”

In the top five is 18-year old Leanne Wong of Kansas. The University of Florida-bound gymnast's strongest event was her floor routine.

Besides Biles and Lee, the scores at the Championships or the trials won't necessarily provide a a cleaerfut choice for the team. The complicated selection process is mystifying for anyone outside of the world of gymnastics.

“The gymnast does not have to be an all-arounder,” Forster said of the additional, individual athlete. “Our goal is to provide our athletes with the most opportunities to win medals for themselves and for Team USA. We believe that we’re going to have our strongest all-arounders on the team. … Whoever is really stepping up and showing the best potential for winning a medal or medals will earn that [individual] spot.”

Three Asian American gymnasts finish among the top five at US championships

USA GYMNASTICS

Sunisa Lee is one of three Asian Americans who are vying for the 2020 US Women's Gymnastics Team.

ASAM NEWS contributed to this report.

If the US women's Olympic gymnastics team was to be chosen right now, three of the top five would be Asian Americans.

The top five all-around women based on their performances on the four catagories: floor exercise, vault, uneven bars, balance beam; 2016 Olympic champion Simone Biles would lead all competitors. However, rounding out the top five would be three Asian American gymnasts Sunisa Lee, Morgan Hurd and Leanne Wong. Grace McCallum joins the top five all-around.

However, the competitors still have to perform at the US Olympic Trials next June in St. Louis before the final selection. 

Like the men’s team, the five-member Olympic women’s team is selected by  by committee. The committee weighed the performance of each gymnast at nationals and Olympic Trials, her strengths on each apparatus, and her past experience.

Senior Women All-around

1. Simone Biles –118.500
2. Sunisa Lee — 113.550
3. Grace McCallum — 111.850
4. Morgan Hurd — 111.700
5. Leanne Wong — 111.250

Sunisa Lee of Minnesota surprised herself by coming in second in the all-around, behind Biles dominating performance.

The 16-year-old placed second at the US Gymnastics Championships in Kansas City, MO. this weekend, behind first place finisher Simone Biles, who sealed her position by doing the first-ever, astounding triple double during her floor exercise.

Lee is the first Hmong American to make Team USA in gymnastics and could become the first Hmong American to make the Olympic team in 2020 in Tokyo.

“It’s crazy. I never thought that I could be that good,” Lee admitted to Team USA.org. “So when I saw that (finishing 2nd), I was just shocked and I didn’t know what to do. My coach, he always says, yeah, you can be second, but I never believe him. I guess he’s right this time.”

“She moves so fluidly – sequential movement for her is so beautiful,” team coordinator Tom Forster said . “She’s a really beautiful gymnast.”

According to Team USA, Lee began in the sport at age 6 and had Olympic aspirations once she made an elite program in her pre-teen years.

This was her first time ever competing in Nationals and the 2020 Olympics is within her reach.

“It adds a lot of pressure,” Lee said on realizing how capable she is of making it to an Olympic Games. “It’s really nerve-wracking; I try not to think about it a lot just because it gets me going a little bit, but it’s always in the back of your head.”

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