FLIPPING FOR GOLD
Sunisa Lee takes all-around gymnastics title, the 5th consecutive American to win it
TOKYO » When should it have been all too much?
When would you or I have quit?
After the first injury that kept her out for two months in 2020?
Or the second injury that kept her out for two more months?
When her father became paralyzed in 2019?
Or when she lost two close family members to COVID-19?
“There was one point I wanted to quit,” Sunisa Lee admits.
But she didn’t.
Thursday night, with a world watching, Lee, 18, captured the Olympic allaround title, the crown jewel of her sport and the Summer Games, with a triumph of resiliency that established her as a worthy heir to gymnastic royalty, to the Latyninas and Caslavskas, the Comanecis and Liukins, and even to the greatest of them all, Simone Biles.
With Biles, the 2016 Olympic all-around champion, watching from the Ariake Gymnastics Centre, Lee, who goes by Suni, was solid all night and then had to endure a few final nervous moments while Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade, second at the time, finished her floor routine. When Andrade stepped out of bounds on the final step of her final tumbling pass, the gold medal was Lee’s.
Lee, from Little Canada, Minnesota, became the fifth consecutive American to win the event, posting a 57.433 score. Andrade, despite the misstep, held onto the silver medal at 57.298. Russia’s Angelina Melnikova took the bronze at 57.199. Jade Carey, Biles’ replacement, was eighth at 54.199.
“It feels crazy; it is so surreal,” said Lee, the first U.S. Olympic champion of Hmong descent. “It’s a dream come true. I don’t even know what to say. It hasn’t even sunk in.
“It doesn’t even seem like real life.”
In fact, much of the previous 48 hours had been surreal.
After experiencing spatial awareness issues on the vault on Team USA’s first rotation in the team final Tuesday night, Biles withdrew from the competition, citing mental health concerns. In her absence, the U.S. fell to Russia, marking the first time since 2010 that the American women did not win that team title at the Olympic Games or World Championships. A day later, Biles withdrew from the individual all-around event as well.
So Thursday’s competition not only took place in a state of emergency in Tokyo because of the pandemic, but in the middle of America’s latest cultural war as well. While Biles’ decision to remove herself from the competition launched a global discussion on mental health and she was applauded by the White House, fellow Olympians and celebrities, she also was attacked, vilified on Fox and right-wing radio, accused of being selfish, entitled, soft and even unpatriotic.
Some former USA Gymnastics officials even gloated about the perceived downfall of Biles, both a survivor of former U.S. Olympic and national team physician Dr. Larry Nassar and perhaps the most vocal critic of USA Gymnastics and its failure to overhaul the culture of abuse that enabled the sexual abuse of Nassar and at least three former Olympic team coaches.
Biles’ absence also created an unsettling sense of uncertainty for Lee and many of her fellow competitors. For the first time since Biles emerged on the international scene in 2013, the field wasn’t just competing for silver medal.
“I just had to shift gears,” Lee said, “because before we’re coming in here to compete for second place.
So when the opportunity was there, I had to do what I normally do because I feel like, I’ve been second to (Biles) so many times, I just do what I do because otherwise it would get into my head.”
In that regard, Lee was perhaps more equipped to adjust than her rivals.
Lee likely would not have made the U.S. team had the Olympics been held as scheduled in 2020. She missed two months last year with a broken left foot and another two months with an Achilles tendon injury. She won the 2019 U.S. Championships uneven bars title while competing with a hairline tibia fracture. She dedicated that victory to her father, John, who only weeks earlier became paralyzed from the chest down after falling off a ladder.
Lee also lost an aunt and uncle to COVID-19.
“The past few years have been absolutely crazy with COVID and my family and everything else,” she said. “This medal definitely means a lot to me because there was a point in time where I wanted to quit and I just didn’t think I’d ever get here (because of) injuries and stuff.
“So there were definitely a lot of emotions, but I’m super proud of myself for sticking with it.”
Earlier Thursday, she called her parents one last time. It was nighttime in Minnesota and they were getting ready to go to bed. John Lee got on the phone. He told her to focus on just doing her best. Don’t get hung up on scores. Don’t scoreboard watch.
“And they told me,” Lee recalled, “in their hearts I was already a winner.”