Sunisa Lee

Sunisa Lee (born March 9, 2003)[1] is an American artistic gymnast and part of the United States women's national gymnastics team. She was a member of the team that won gold at the 2019 World Championships, where she also won silver on the floor exercise and bronze on the uneven bars. She won three medals at the USA Gymnastics National Championships during her first year as a senior elite gymnast, including a national title on the uneven bars.

Sunisa Lee
Personal information
Nickname(s)	Suni
Country represented	United States
Born	March 9, 2003 St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
Height	152 cm (5 ft 0 in)
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior International Elite
Years on national team	2017–Present (US)
Club	Midwest Gymnastics Center
College team	Auburn Tigers
Head coach(es)	Jeff Graba
Assistant coach(es)	Alison Lim
Medal record Representing the  United States World Championships 2019 Stuttgart Team 2019 Stuttgart Floor Exercise 2019 Stuttgart Uneven Bars Pacific Rim Championships (Junior) 2018 Medellín Team 2018 Medellín Vault 2018 Medellín Balance Beam 2018 Medellín Floor Exercise

Personal life

Lee was born to Hmong[2] parents, Yeev Thoj and John Lee, in 2003. She has five siblings. She began gymnastics when she was six.[1] She is of Hmong descent.[3]

Gymnastics career

2015–2017

Lee competed in the Hopes division in 2015 and became a junior elite in 2016. She made her junior elite debut at the 2016 U.S. Classic. In 2017, she made her international debut at the Gymnix International Junior Cup, where the US won the gold medal in the team event and Lee won the silver medal on uneven bars.[4] In May 2017, Lee verbally committed to Auburn University on a gymnastics scholarship.[5]

2018

Lee was named to the team to compete at the 2018 Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships.[6] There, she won the gold medal with the U.S. team in the team final and won the silver medal on vault, balance beam, and floor exercise. She finished 4th in the all-around.[7] On July 28, Lee competed at the 2018 U.S. Classic where she finished fifth in the all-around. She won the gold medal on balance beam despite not doing a dismount.[8]

Lee competed in August at the 2018 U.S. National Championships in Boston as one of the favorites for the Junior national title along with Leanne Wong, Jordan Bowers, and Kayla DiCello. She won the bronze medal in the all-around behind Wong and DiCello and won the gold medal on bars.[9]

2019

In February, USA Gymnastics announced that Lee would made her senior debut at the 2019 City of Jesolo Trophy.[10] There, she won the gold medal in the all-around and helped the U.S. win the gold medal in the team final.[11] She also won the gold medal on bars and floor, as well as the bronze medal on beam behind reigning World Champion Liu Tingting of China and teammate Emma Malabuyo.[12]

In June, Lee competed at the American Classic on only bars and beam. She placed second on beam and fifth on bars after falling off twice.[13] After the conclusion of the American Classic, Lee was named as one of the eight athletes being considered for the team to compete at the 2019 Pan American Games along with Sloane Blakely, Kara Eaker, Aleah Finnegan, Morgan Hurd, Shilese Jones, Riley McCusker, and Leanne Wong.[14]

At the 2019 GK US Classic, Lee opted to only compete bars and beam, where she placed second behind Morgan Hurd and joint-eighth with Hurd, respectively. She was not named to the Pan-American Games team.[15]

At the 2019 U.S. National Championships, Lee competed all four events on the first day of competition and was in second place in the all-around behind Simone Biles and in first place on uneven bars.[16] On the second day of competition, she continued performing clean routines and ended up winning the silver medal in the all-around behind Biles. She also won the gold medal on bars ahead of Morgan Hurd and Biles, placed fourth on beam behind Biles, Kara Eaker, and Leanne Wong, and won the bronze medal on floor behind Biles and Jade Carey. As a result, she was named a member of the national team.[17]

In September, Lee competed at the US World Championships trials, where she placed second in the all-around behind Simone Biles, losing by only 0.350 points. The following day she was named to the team to compete at the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart alongside Biles, Kara Eaker, MyKayla Skinner, Jade Carey, and Grace McCallum.[18] She was the only first-year senior named to the team and the only team member without prior World Championships experience.

During the qualification round at the World Championships, Lee helped the USA qualify to the team final in first place, over five points ahead of second place China. Individually, Lee qualified to the all-around final in second place behind teammate Biles despite a fall on the balance beam. She also qualified in second place behind Biles to the floor exercise final, beating out teammate Carey in a tiebreaker, and to the uneven bars final in third place behind reigning World Champion Nina Derwael of Belgium and 2015 World Champion Daria Spiridonova of Russia.[19] Even with the fall on beam, Lee also would have qualified as a reserve for the balance beam finals, but was excluded by the two-per-country rule, as Biles and Eaker had both qualified in higher positions.

In the team final, Lee competed on uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise and helped the USA win the gold medal ahead of Russia and Italy. Although she fell again on balance beam, her score on uneven bars (14.733) was the third highest of the day behind Becky Downie of Great Britain and Spiridonova, and her score on floor exercise (14.233) was also the third highest of the day, behind teammates Biles and Carey.[20] In the all-around final, Lee's floor exercise score was the second highest score of the day, once again behind Biles, but she finished in eighth place overall after an uncharacteristic fall off the uneven bars.[21] For the uneven bars final, Lee performed a clean routine and earned a score of 14.800, winning the bronze medal behind Derwael and Downie.[22][23] The following day, she competed in the floor final and won the silver medal behind Biles and ahead of Angelina Melnikova of Russia.

2020

In late January it was announced that Lee would compete at the Stuttgart World Cup taking place in March.[24] The Stuttgart World Cup was later canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany.[25] In November Lee signed her National Letter of Intent with Auburn University.[26]

Selected competitive skills

Apparatus	Name	Description	Difficulty[lower-alpha 1]	Performed
Vault	Baitova	Yurchenko entry, laid out salto backwards with two twists	5.4	2019
Uneven Bars	Piked Jaeger	Reverse grip swing to piked salto forwards to catch high bar	E	2019
	Bhardwaj	Laid out salto from high bar to low bar with full twist	E	2019
	Van Leeuwen	Toe-On Shaposhnikova transition with ½ twist to high bar	E	2019
	Nabieva	Toe-on to counter reversed laid out hecht over high bar	G	2019
Balance Beam	Layout	Laid out salto backwards with legs together (to two feet)	E	2019
	Mitchell	1080° (3/1) turn in tuck stand on one leg	E	2019
	Switch Ring	Switch Leap to Ring Position (180° split with raised back leg)	E	2019
Floor Exercise	Mitchell	1080° (3/1) turn in tuck stand on one leg	E	2019
	Double Layout	Double laid out salto backwards	F	2019
	Silivas	Double-twisting (2/1) double tucked salto backwards	H	2019

1. Valid for the 2017–2020 Code of Points

Competitive history

Junior

Year	Event	Team	AA	VT	UB	BB	FX
2015	Hopes Championships			6
2016	U.S. Classic		16	34	22	15	6
	P&G National Championships		10	23	10	20	5
2017	International Gymnix
	U.S. Classic				10	4
	P&G National Championships		8	17	6	11	5
2018	Pacific Rim Championships
	U.S. Classic		5	24			25
	U.S. National Championships			6			5

Senior

Year	Event	Team	AA	VT	UB	BB	FX
2019	City of Jesolo Trophy
	American Classic				5
	U.S. Classic					8
	U.S. National Championships					4
	Worlds Team Selection Camp			6
	World Championships		8

References

1. https://usagym.org/pages/athletes/athleteListDetail.html?id=467541
2. Macur, Juliet (May 22, 2020). "This Gymnast hasn't turn off her Olympic Countdown". New York Times.
3. "St. Paul Hmong-American gymnast leaps toward her Olympic dream – and history". Minnesota Public Radio. June 9, 2017.
4. "2017 International Gymnix". FloGymnastics. March 12, 2017.
5. "U.S. Junior National Team Member Sunisa Lee Commits To Auburn". FloGymnastics. May 22, 2017.
6. "USA Gymnastics names women's 2018 Pac Rim, Junior Pan Am Championships Teams". USA Gymnastics. April 10, 2018.
7. "USA brings home 29 medals from men's, women's individual event finals". USA Gymnastics. April 29, 2018.
8. "Biles, Wong win all-around titles at 2018 GK U.S. Classic". USA Gymnastics. July 28, 2018.
9. "2018 U.S. Championships Results, Recaps, Photos, Videos". USA Gymnastics. Retrieved 2018-09-02.
10. "USA Gymnastics announces women's spring international team assignments". USA Gymnastics. February 24, 2019.
11. "2019 City of Jesolo Trophy Live Blog – The Seniors". The Gymternet. March 2, 2019.
12. "2019 City of Jesolo Trophy Live Blog – Event Finals". The Gymternet. March 3, 2019.
13. "Torrez, Alipio win all-around titles at 2019 American Classic". USA Gymnastics. June 22, 2019.
14. "USA Gymnastics names eight women eligible for 2019 U.S. Women's Pan American Games Team". USA Gymnastics. June 23, 2019.
15. "Biles, McClain win all-around titles at 2019 GK U.S. Classic". USA Gymnastics. July 20, 2019.
16. "Biles soars to top of all-around rankings at 2019 U.S. Championships, performing two new skills along the way". USA Gymnastics. July 10, 2019.
17. "Biles soars to sixth U.S. women's all-around title at 2019 U.S. Championships". USA Gymnastics. August 11, 2019.
18. "USA Gymnastics announces 2019 U.S. Women's World Championships Team". USA Gymnastics. September 23, 2019.
19. "USA advances to women's team, individual finals at 2019 World Championships". USA Gymnastics. October 4, 2019.
20. "Simone Biles breaks record; U.S. women win gymnastics world team title". NBC Sports. October 8, 2019.
21. "Simone Biles wins fifth world all-around title by record margin". NBC Sports. October 10, 2019.
22. @USAGym (October 12, 2019). "Uneven Bars Final at #Stuttgart2019" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
23. "Carey, Biles, Lee all medal in event finals at 2019 World Championships". USA Gymnastics. October 12, 2019.
24. "Olympic, World champions gear up for star-studded Stuttgart World Cup". International Gymnastics Federation. January 30, 2020.
25. "Impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the upcoming FIG events". International Gymnastics Federation. March 11, 2020.
26. "GAME-CHANGER: Auburn gymnastics signs world champion Sunisa Lee". Opelika-Auburn News. November 11, 2020.