Tokyo Olympics: A distracted Suni Lee still earns a bronze medal on uneven bars

NBC

American Sunisa Lee didn't feel right Sunday during her uneven bars routine.

An Olympic bronze medal is nothing to sneeze at but Sunisa Lee couldn't help but sound disappointed.

The gold medal winner of the women's all-around gymnastic title last Thursday, Lee expected to do better on the uneven bars, her favorite event.

"Bars is something I really cherish," Lee said. "So when I mess it up, it really sucks.

“It really sucks because this wasn’t the bar routine I was supposed to do or wanted to do,” Lee said. “Bars is, like, my thing. I’m just kind of sad about it.”

It was the evening's high score, 15.3 that she earned for her complicated routine on the uneven bars during the all-around competition that put her in serious contention for the gold.

But Sunday night, she didn't feel right. She only scored 14.5. Belgium’s Nina Derwael won gold with a 15.2. Derwael won the last two world championships.

Lee admits the distractions that come with winning the gold medal may have affected her performance.

Since her gold medal a little more than two days ago, she has been caught in a whirlwind of interviews and social media mentions. It's a lot. As a result, judging from her uneven bars performance Sunday, it's probably too much.

Since the Olympics began ten days ago, the Hmong American's popularity has exploded. She's added 950,000 followers on Instagram, a stunning 390% increase, including 365,000 since she won the gold medal.

The fame and glory is something she wasn't prepared for. She was expecting to be playing second fiddle to Simone Biles, who was expected to dominate the gymnastics competition. Biles unexpected withdrawal to focus on her mental health needs, put Lee in the spotlight she never sought.

A bronze medal,"is really cool," Lee said. "I just wish the bronze medal was a (balance) beam medal, not bars."

Lee will get a chance to add to her gold and bronze when she enters the balance beam final on Tuesday, admittedly not her best event. A medal on vault would be a bit of a surprise.

She believes the social media was a distraction Sunday. The 18-year old Minnesotan  thinks she might avoid Twitter until the competition is over.

Tokyo Olympics: Suni Lee wins gold medal in best all-around gymnastic performance

The United States's Sunisa Lee with her newest hardware, an Olympic gold medal.

With all of the media focusing on gymnast Simone Biles and her mental health struggle, Sunisa Lee focused on herself and the task at had, to do her best. Her best, it turns out, was enough to win the gold medal in all-around.

"The past two years have been absolutely crazy with Covid and my family and everything else," Lee told journalists Thursday morning after she won the event at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre.

"This medal definitely means a lot to me because there was a point in time when I wanted to quit and I just didn't think I would ever be here, including injuries and stuff.

"So there are a lot of emotions, but I'm definitely super proud of myself for sticking with it and believing in myself," said Lee, who is the first Hmong American to represent the U.S. in the Olympics.

The 18-year old gymnast won the women's all-around title ahead of Brazil's Rebeca Andrade, the silver medalist and the Russian Olympic Committee's Angelina Melnikova, who won the bronze.

Lee's gold medal was the fifth in a row for an American gymnast in the Olympic women's all-around.

Biles and the rest of her teammates, were in the stands to cheer on Lee, who is bound for Auburn University on a full athletic scholarship.

SCREEN CAPTURE / NBC

Sunisa Lee on the balance beam.

Biles, who most experts had predicted to dominate the gymnastics at the Tokyo Olympics, bowed out of competition earlier in the weak because of state of her mental health. Her health, she said, was day to day. It is not certain if she will compete on the individual events Sunday.

At the U.S. championships held prior to the Olympics, Lee had pushed Biles throughout the competition, actually besting the G.O.A.T. on the uneven bars, Lee's specialty.

Biles and the older gymnasts told Lee advised Lee prior tot he competition. “They told me to just go out there and not worry about anything else because I was starting to put a lot of pressure on myself,” Lee said.

Lee can add on to her gold and the silver medal earned by the team. On Sunday gymnasts will compete on individual events. Lee has qualified on the balance beam and uneven bars.

The gold medal was up for grabs up until the last event, the floor exercises. After Lee's performance, which she  made more complicated for the points, she waited until her score to finally celebrated, clapping her hands before hugging her coach. Across the Pacific, cheering broke out in St. Paul, Minnesota where family and friends had gathered to watch her historic performance on television.

The Twin Cities is home to one of the largest Hmong American communities in the United States. Lee is the American-born-and-raised daughter of Laos' Hmong refugees who fought on the side of the Americans during the Vietnam War. Thousands of Hmong families sought refuge in the U.S. after the war.

Just being in the Olympics representing the U.S. "means a lot to the Hmong community," Lee told People,  "... and to just be an inspiration to other Hmong people (means) a lot to me too."

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.

Young Hmong American gymnast shines at World's championship

USA GYMNASTICS

Sunisa Lee, left, and  Simone Biles helped lead the US to the team title at World's Gymnastic Championship.

ASAM NEWS

Sunisa Lee said she couldn’t help but think of her father as she stood on the gold medal podium with Team USA at the World Gymnastics Championship in Stuttgart, Germany.

It was just in August when her father fell off a ladder while trying to help a friend. Her father, a Persian Gulf War veteran, suffered a spinal cord injury and is now paralyzed.

“I was thinking of my dad the whole time,” the 16 year old said to NBC Sports, “and to do it for him because I knew that he would be so proud.”

“I FaceTimed him last night and he’s telling me that he’s super excited and proud, and he even woke up super early this morning just to watch,” she said Tuesday to the Star Tribune.

Her father John said “it’s amazing” to see his daughter and teammates doing so well.

Simone Biles, the star of the US team and at age 22, the oldest, took time to single out the Hmong American from St. Paul, Minnesota.

“What’s impressed me the most, I think, has been Suni. She’s only 16 years old. She’s been through a long year, and to come out and put up the three events and the scores she did is pretty crazy.”

Biles record setting performance helped the US women's gymnastics team to win the title. This is their record-tying fifth consecutive World team title, and it's also their seventh win of all time. 

Sunisa told reporters, "I feel amazing. It's so crazy to be a world champion, and I'm so excited." 

In the individual all-around competition, Lee finished eighth in the women's all-around competition in Stuttgart, Germany, after an early miscue  hurt her score in her signature event, on the uneven bars. Meanwhile, her teammate Biles continued her extraordinary run by finishing first in the all-around

"I feel like I kind of let the nerves get to me a little bit, but it's all part of the learning experience," Lee said to reporters in Germany after the meet. "There's going to be a lot more meets to come before the Olympics, so hopefully I can kind of get myself back together for that."

Views From the Edge contributed to this report.

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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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