Jul. 23—With every tantalizing twirl on the uneven bars, every logic-defying leap on the balance beam, every fearless flip on the floor, St. Paul gymnast Sunisa Lee is inspiring more people than maybe she even realizes.
As the first Hmong-American to compete for Team USA, the 18-year-old Lee is already a hero in her community. And while she’s sure to become a universal fan favorite at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, for the Hmong community at large, the fact that she’s there in any capacity might mean more than a gold medal ever could.
As her father John Lee told ELLE Magazine in May when asked about his daughter potentially making the Olympic roster: “It would be the greatest accomplishment of any Hmong person in the U.S. ever. It will go down in history.”
It has. No matter what happens at the Olympics — Lee will first compete for Team USA in a qualifying round at 1:10 a.m. Sunday morning — she will always be remembered for this snapshot moment in time.
“She’s the realization of the dream our ancestors had,” Hmong activist Tou Ger Xiong said. “When they hopped on that plane, and didn’t speak a lick of English, and didn’t know how they heck they were going to make it work, this is the type of opportunity they were envisioning down the road. Everything our ancestors sacrificed to come here was done to give the next generations a better life. She’s living proof of that.”
To understand how much this means to the Hmong community, it’s important to to reflect on how they came to the United States in the first place. During the Vietnam War, the Hmong were recruited to fight alongside American soldiers in what is now known as Secret War in Laos. When the United States withdrew from Laos, the Hmong fled to Thailand as refugees, before eventually making their way to the United States.
Nowadays, the city of St. Paul has the largest concentration of Hmong in a metro area outside of Southeast Asia. That includes Lee’s parents, John Lee and Yeev Thoj, who were children when their families settled in St. Paul. Unbeknownst to either of them at the time, their daughter, Sunisa, would inspire the Hmong community with her athletic prowess and humble demeanor.
“It’s important to remember that she came from a refugee family,” Xiong said. “It’s not like she came from all this money. She comes from a very humble home. Her parents sacrificed a lot for her to get to where she is now, and she hasn’t taken that for granted.”
That said, Lee deserves credit, too. She had to work hard to reach this level.
She burst onto the scene at 2019 U.S. Championships, earning second place in the all-around behind the GOAT Simone Biles. She took first place on uneven bars in that competition and will be a favorite to win an individual gold medal in that event at the Olympics. Her rise continued at the 2019 World Championship in Stuttgart, Germany, where she won a gold medal as a part of the team competition.
That put her on the fast track to the Olympics, and while she had to overcome a host of adversity to get there, including a pandemic, Lee officially made the Team USA roster last month.
“I think for any refugee community within the first half a century there are going to be many firsts,” said Pa Der Vang, an associate professor at St. Catherine University. “As a whole, the Hmong community has experienced many firsts whether it’s the first state senator, first state representative, first city mayor, first university professor, and so on and so forth. This is another first for us, so it’s very exciting. It’s someone to celebrate.”
And celebrate, the Hmong community in St. Paul has. There was a massive block party earlier this month about a week and a half before Lee left for the Olympics. She couldn’t attend due to COVID protocols, but people still showed up in droves to show their support.
“I’m sure a lot of Hmong people will be watching the gymnastics portion of the Olympics this year solely because of Sunisa,” Hmong community leader KaYing Yang said. “This is a sport that all of us have watched during the Olympics. We just never imagined a Hmong person would be competing in such a high-profile event. We are just really proud of her.”
As proud as so many people are of Lee, the fact that she is so proud of her culture is also very important. She’s been vocal about the Hmong community throughout her rise up the ranks, and because of that, she has emerged as a role model for kids despite being relatively young herself.
“That’s amazing for someone that young to have that sense of awareness,” Vang said. “There are a lot of young kids who might feel shame for looking different. Maybe they don’t necessarily fit into the mainstream or whatever so they hide that part of their identity. I think seeing Sunisa succeed on such a big stage has a big impact. She doesn’t hide from who she is, so maybe some young kids don’t feel like they have to hide from it either.”
There are already countless example of kids gravitating toward Lee across the Twin Cities. St. Paul resident Terri Thao said her daughter races to the television whenever Lee is competing, and she expects the same thing during the Olympics regardless of the early start times.
“To see someone make it to the Olympics and be on such a massive stage is so meaningful,” Thao said. “It’s about representation, right? She’s competing for Team USA. If anything, it says that we as a Hmong community are just as American as anyone else.”
That’s a powerful thing that can’t be overstated. Because it hasn’t always felt like that.
“She looks like us,” Xiong said. “When I see her, I see someone that could be my daughter. When many Hmong American teenagers see her, they see someone that could be their sister or their cousin. That type of representation means so much.”
It’s also important to note that Lee is helping spread awareness to the elders in the Hmong community, too, with her performances being rebroadcast on Hmong media.
“There are elders like my parents who are watching and asking, ‘Who is this Sunisa Lee?’ ” Yang said. “It’s making them proud, and I think it’s important for our elders to understand that children can achieve a lot when given the opportunity.”
Though no spectators are allowed at the Olympics, which means her parents cannot attend, Lee knows her whole family will be watching proudly from afar. As will the rest of St. Paul. And the Hmong community at large.
“The fact that she’s from St. Paul matters, too,” Xiong said. “In a lot of ways, St. Paul is the mecca of the Hmong community in the United States. She’s coming from that mecca and representing Team USA on the biggest stage of all. There’s something magical about it. It’s almost this thing, like, ‘It’s finally our time.’ “