Sunisa Lee already had an impressive record coming into the Tokyo Olympics, and now the 18-year-old gymnast from Minnesota can add Olympic all-around champion to her growing list of accomplishments. This individual gold comes after Lee and her teammates clinched silver in the team final, and with individual medals still to be awarded on the balance beam and uneven bars (Lee's speciality), it's possible that she is just getting started.
Anyone who's watched gymnastics in the past few years could have predicted that Lee's moment would arrive. After a successful junior career, she blazed onto the senior scene in 2019. In her senior debut, at the 2019 City of Jesolo Trophy in Italy, Lee proved that she could already compete with the best, winning gold in the team, all-around, uneven bars, and floor events, along with a bronze on the balance beam.
Though she struggled a bit through the rest of the season, she rebounded at the 2019 US Gymnastics Championships, where she won three medals: gold on the uneven bars, bronze on the floor, and silver in the all-around, finishing just behind Simone Biles. Although her Olympic dreams, like those of her teammates, were delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the one-year postponement of the Olympics, she was more than ready for Tokyo.
At this year's national championships, Lee proved that the year off hasn't knocked her down one bit. Finishing second in the all-around (again behind Biles) and winning medals in two individual events, Lee set herself up for a great run at the Olympic Trials, where she finished first on beam and the uneven bars and second in the all-around en route to being named to the Olympic team. Now, Lee is a two-time Olympic medalist with a promising few days of competition still to come. Learn more about the American standout ahead.
0 Commentaires