Suni Lee and Simone Biles Are Set for a Historic All-Around Final (2024)

2003–present

Suni Lee News: U.S. Gymnast Ready for Olympic All-Around Final

U.S. gymnastSuni Lee will make history—with some help from teammate Simone Biles—in Thursday’sOlympic all-around final in Paris.

Only two days after helping the U.S. team defeat Italy and Brazil for team gold on Tuesday, Lee will try to defend her all-around title from the delayed 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics against Biles and a field of other hopefuls. With the 21-year-old Lee and Biles both participating, the competition will mark the first time two former all-around champions compete in an Olympic final (Biles won in 2016).

Lee is ranked third after the qualifying round with 56.132 points, behind leader Biles and Rebecca Andrade of Brazil.

An American gymnast has won the all-around title in each of the last five Olympics, with Carly Patterson, Nastia Liukin, and Gabby Douglas also part of the streak.

The all-around final begins at 12:15 ET on NBC.Additionally, Peacock subscribers can enjoy an enhanced “multi-view” streaming experience for all of their favorite sports and athletes throughout the Games.

Stream the Olympics on Peacock

Who Is Suni Lee?

American gymnast Suni Lee rose to prominence by winning the all-around competition and two additional medals at the pandemic-delayed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Lee became the fifth-straight American woman to claim all-around gold and the first Asian American to accomplish the feat. Following her victory, the Minnesota native competed collegiately at the Auburn University before being sidelined in April 2023 by two forms of kidney disease. Treatment and physical therapy enabled her to compete once more and qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Jump to:

  • Who Is Suni Lee?
  • Quick Facts
  • Early Life
  • 2020 Olympic Champion and Collegiate Career
  • Kidney Disease and Comeback
  • 2024 Paris Olympics
  • Dating Life and Dancing with the Stars
  • Quotes

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Sunisa Lee
BORN: March 9, 2003
BIRTHPLACE: Saint Paul, Minnesota
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Pisces

Early Life

Sunisa “Suni” Lee was born Sunisa Phabsomphou on March 9, 2003, in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She is named after her mother’s favorite Thai soap opera actor.

Lee is Asian American of Hmong descent. Her mother, Yeev Thoj, emigrated from Laos to the United States in 1987. The identity of Lee’s biological father hasn’t been publicized. John Lee, also an immigrant from Laos, began dating Thoj when Suni was only 2 years old and has raised her ever since. Suni considers him her father and began using his surname as a teenager. John and Yeev have never married but maintain their long-term relationship.

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Suni Lee with her parents, Yeev Thoj (back row, left) and John Lee (front row, right), and two step-siblings Shyenne and Jonah

Suni has three younger half-siblings. Yeev and John welcomed Evionn, Lucky, and Noah together. John also has two other kids, Shyenne and Jonah, from a previous marriage.

In 2019, John accidentally fell off a ladder while trimming a neighbor’s tree and became paralyzed from the chest down. As of July 2024, he is still in recovery and uses a wheelchair as he slowly relearns to walk. “Before my injury, I was active and athletic,” he told ESPN in July 2021. “I can’t do any of that now, and it’s hard. But when I get so angry at myself, I look at Sunisa and think about what she has had to go through to get to where she’s at, and she inspires me.”

Likewise, Suni’s parents helped inspire and encourage her athletic development. She had a lot of energy as a young child and needed a place to showcase it. According to ESPN, a friend saw the young toddler doing somersaults at the park and suggested a beginner gymnastics class. Additionally, her father built a wooden balance beam in their backyard for at-home practice.

Lee began formal gymnastics training at age 6 at the Midwest Gymnastics in Little Canada, Minnesota. Quickly showing promise, Lee won a state meet at age 7 in only her second competition. By age 11, she qualified for the elite tier of the USA Gymnastics Women’s Development Program, making her eligible to represent America in international competitions. Three years later, in 2017, she earned a spot on the U.S. Junior National Team at age 14, making it apparent she was a rising star to watch.

2020 Olympic Champion and Collegiate Career

After placing third in the junior women’s all-around and winning gold on the junior uneven bars at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships in August 2018, Lee made her international debut with the senior team at the 2019 City of Jesolo Trophy in Italy.

2020 Tokyo Olympics

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At the Tokyo Games, Suni Lee became the first Asian American to win gold in the women’s all-around competition. It was one of three medals she earned.

Lee seemed poised to compete for a spot at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo but had to wait more than a year for her opportunity after the Games were delayed to July 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, Lee placed second in all-around competition, behind defending Olympic champion Simone Biles, to earn her spot on Team USA.

Considered a longshot to win in Tokyo compared to Biles, Lee entered the spotlight after her teammate withdrew from the majority of her event finals because of “the twisties,” when a gymnast’s mind and body don’t feel in sync. “We were all coming in to compete for second place,” Lee told Time, acknowledging Biles’ dominance in the arena. “I just had to switch gears. I feel like the whole season I was second to her, so when the opportunity was there, I had to do what I normally do and tried not to focus on that.”

Buoyed by the difficulty of her routine on the uneven bars, the hardest of any competitor, the 18-year-old Lee held off Rebeca Andrade of Brazil to win the all-around Olympic gold medal. She became the fifth-straight American competitor to claim the title—following Carly Patterson, Nastia Liukin, Gabby Douglas, and Biles—as well as the only Asian American to accomplish the feat. Lee also helped the United States win a silver medal in the team competition and won a bronze medal on the uneven bars. As a result of her Olympic victory, Sports Illustrated named Lee one of its two Athletes of the Year in 2021.

NCAA Career at Auburn

Just a few weeks after winning three Olympic medals in Tokyo, Lee attempted to transition to a more typical teenage life by starting classes at Auburn University in August 2021. Lee also competed for the Tigers gymnastics team, becoming the first Olympic all-around champion to perform collegiately.

Lee made her debut in January 2022 and kept up her momentum from the Tokyo Games, earning eight All-America honors during the season. At the 2022 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships, she won an individual title on the balance beam with a score of 9.9625 and finished second in the all-around standings behind Trinity Thomas of the University of Florida.

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Suni Lee competed for Auburn University for one and a half seasons before ending her collegiate career.

But behind the scenes, Lee was struggling with her mental health. She revealed she experienced “imposter syndrome” after her Olympic gold medal, feeling she didn’t deserve to win over her U.S. teammate Biles. “It was very hard for me to motivate myself the first couple of weeks here because it was like I didn’t want to do gymnastics. I hated it,” she told ESPN.

She also began to lament her entire college experience. According to Sports Illustrated, Lee began attending virtual classes for security reasons. She also alleges she was the victim of stalking on campus. Gymnastics offered little reprieve, as Lee “really felt like an outcast, almost,” among her teammates. “They didn’t treat me that well. I just knew that I couldn’t trust them,” Lee said.

Lee, who already planned to leave the Auburn team in 2023 to prepare for the next Olympics, competed in only eight more meets before a health scare forced her off the mat entirely and put her career in jeopardy.

Kidney Disease and Comeback

In February 2023, Lee began to experience swelling all over her body—including her ankles, face, hands, and legs—as well as nausea and lightheadedness. “I could not bend my legs the slightest, I couldn’t squeeze my fingers,” said Lee, who retained as much as 45 pounds of water weight. “I looked like a completely different person.”

Soon after in April, Lee announced she was stepping away from the Auburn team, citing “a non-gymnastics related health issue.” Tests revealed Lee had incurable kidney disease present in two forms, and she returned home to Minnesota.

Still hopeful to compete at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, Lee began physical therapy and started medication. She also adjusted her training regimen based on the severity of her symptoms. Lee improved enough to compete at the 2023 U.S. Gymnastics Championships, where she won a bronze medal on the balance beam.

It wasn’t until January 2024 that doctors told Lee she had made enough progress to begin decreasing her medication. Lee shared in April 2024 that her kidney disease was in remission, leaving the possibility of another Olympics berth.

2024 Paris Olympics

Lee resumed full training for the 2024 Summer Games but still needed a strong showing at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in June to cement her spot. Lee delivered just that, taking first place on the uneven bars and placing second in the all-around standings behind Biles, easily making the five-member Olympic team.

In addition to defending her individual title, Lee was determined to help the U.S. win team gold after its runner-up finish in Tokyo. “This is the same team, basically, as 2020, so it’s kind of like a redemption tour,” she said.

Thanks to a bounceback performance by Biles, the U.S. team earned the top score in qualifying. In the team final, Lee scored a 14.600 on the balance beam—tying the best mark of the day—and helped the squad hold off Italy for the fourth team gold medal in the program’s history.

Dating Life and Dancing with the Stars

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Suni Lee competed with Sasha Farber on Season 30 of Dancing with the Stars.

Lee’s success in gymnastics has led to media and business opportunities. She was one of the athletes featured in the 2021 Peacock docuseries Golden: The Journey of USA’s Elite Gymnasts, about the months leading into the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for the Tokyo Games. Lee also boasts fashion designer among her list of accomplishments, creating a collection of training leotards for GK Elite as well as an athleisure line for British brand PrettyLittleThing.

On TV, she competed on the 30th season of the reality competition show Dancing with the Stars in 2021, placing fifth overall after reaching the semifinals. While in Los Angeles to rehearse for the show in October 2021, the gymnast was pepper-sprayed as part of a racially-motivated attack.

Soon after in January 2022, Lee revealed she received hateful messages from the Hmong community over her romantic relationship with Jaylin Smith, a Black football player at the University of Southern California. The current status of Lee and Smith’s relationship is unknown.

Quotes

  • I know gymnastics is not my whole life, and it’s not going to be my whole life, but for right now, it is my life.
  • I feel like people get it mixed up. I don’t care about the money and the fame. All I wanted to do was go to the Olympics. I didn’t want anything that came after it. The only thing I wanted was the Olympics.
  • I know that if I just put my mind to something, then I can achieve it. I think that I’m starting to see that clearly now, so I’m just going to keep doing that for every meet.
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Tyler Piccotti

News and Culture Editor, Biography.com

Tyler Piccotti joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor and is now the News and Culture Editor. He previously worked as a reporter and copy editor for a daily newspaper recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In his current role, he shares the true stories behind your favorite movies and TV shows and profiles rising musicians, actors, and athletes. When he's not working, you can find him at the nearest amusement park or movie theater and cheering on his favorite teams.

Suni Lee and Simone Biles Are Set for a Historic All-Around Final (2024)

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