The victory for Lee, 18, resonated deeply back home in Minnesota, particularly with the state’s Hmong American community, in which she was raised.
For years, the gymnast Sunisa Lee wasn’t training just for herself. Lee, a Hmong American from Minnesota, went to the gym every day for all the people whose parents had immigrated to the United States with nothing after escaping war zones. She endured grueling, painful practices to honor her father, John, who put her in the sport when she was 6 and who now uses a wheelchair because of a spinal cord injury. Lee,18, had said publicly that her goal was to win silver in the all-around competition at the Olympics, because her teammate Simone Biles was considered a lock for gold. But when Biles withdrew because of mental stress, Lee got her opportunity and seized it. On Thursday night, she became the fifth consecutive American woman to win the coveted title of best all-around gymnast in the world. “ I didn’t even think that I could be competing for a gold medal; I was convinced I’d compete for a silver medal,” Lee said. “To be here is just crazy to me.” Her victory resounded halfway around the world, in Minnesota homes, malls and community centers where Hmong people — members of an ethnic group from Asia — watched spellbound as Lee realized a dream that echoed their own. “We’re so, so proud of her,” said Toua Xiong, a Hmong businessman who learned of Lee’s victory in a text message from a community leader who was already planning a celebration and fund-raiser for her. Xiong spent four years on the run in the Laos jungle before making his way to the United States, where many in his community were put on public assistance and taught English. He converted a lumberyard into the HmongTown Marketplace mall in St. Paul in 2004, and it now has more than 200 kiosks,15 restaurants and an outdoor farmers market. “We wish to become good American citizens, being prosperous, with the mainstream,” Xiong said. “That’s the dream for myself. I’m chasing after the American dream on the business segment, on the economic development segment. I’m so happy that she is a winner.” Lee said it was a shock for her to wear a gold medal around her neck now, especially after the year she’d had. When her Midwest Gymnastics gym closed because of the coronavirus in March 2020, she was stuck at home with her parents and five siblings, without a proper place to train. When the gym reopened about two months later, Lee fractured her left ankle on a fall from the uneven bars. Soon after, she spent nearly two weeks in isolation with what she assumes was Covid-19, terrified that she would spread it to her father, whose accident left him paralyzed from the chest down and whose breathing is compromised. Some days, she wanted to quit the sport, particularly when her ankle wouldn’t heal, and she was unsure if she could make it to the postponed Olympics in Tokyo. The hardest part, though, Lee said in interviews with The New York Times last year, was when two close relatives died of Covid or a Covid-related issue just 13 days apart: her favorite aunt, to whom she said goodbye over a family video call, and her uncle, a Hmong healer who would often tend to her injuries.
