After seeing the final score, Suniza Lee, a high school girl from the United States, cried with excitement.
In the women's individual all-around final of competitive gymnastics just concluded at the Tokyo Olympics, she won the gold medal with a total score of 57.433 points.
It's not hard to understand Suniza Lee's difficulty, after Byers ruled women's gymnastics for many years, there was finally a long-lost Asian face on the championship list. She had been preparing for this day for too long.
At this point, her identity has changed from the first Miao athlete to represent the United States in the Olympic Games to the first Miao Olympic champion.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" > a brave little girl</h1>
Sunisha Lee just graduated from high school last month, and after the Olympics, she will travel to Alabama to begin her college life at Auburn University.
She has been practicing gymnastics for twelve years since her first contact in 2009. At that time, six-year-old Sunissa saw the video of gymnastics Olympic champions Liukin and Sean Johnson on YouTube and began to develop a strong interest in gymnastics.
"Once it starts (watching the video), I can't stop," she told The New York Times. "It looks so interesting, I want to try it myself."
Sunisha as a child Source: The Internet
But Sonia Lee is a little different from others. She wanted to learn gymnastics, and to do it well, far more than other Americans paid.
Because, Sunisha Lee is a Hmong.
In the United States, the Hmong have always been one of the poorest groups in the United States. The average annual income of Hmong men is nearly $16,000 less than that of other men in the country.
The average annual income of Hmong women is lower than that of men. The poverty rate of the Hmong is twice that of the average U.S. population. At the same time, of all racial and ethnic groups in the United States, they have the lowest rate of bachelor's degree attainment.
Although Sunisha's family is not in poor condition, it is still stressful to face a project like gymnastics.
Gymnastics is a project that requires a lot of financial support. According to Time magazine, learning gymnastics requires greater overhead than other sports. Parents can casually buy their children a soccer ball to play with, but it is impossible to casually buy a high and low bar or vault and put it in the backyard.
And as athletes improve their abilities, the cost of travel, gymnastics uniforms and club membership fees for participating in competitions is not a small expense, costing thousands of dollars every year. For first-generation refugees and their children, this is often out of reach.
Practicing gymnastics often requires professional gymnastics clubs. Image source: Network
In China, if you can join an official sports team from an early age, you can receive systematic sports training at a very small cost. In the United States, everything has to be paid for yourself, until you break through the fame, have commercial value, and can pull sponsorship.
"I've taught so many Hmong girls that sometimes I have to plead with their parents to get them to learn gymnastics." A high school physical education teacher who is also Hmong-American said, "It's not easy for Suniza and her family to get out of this predicament because it takes so much support." ”
In the beginning, Sunissa's father, John Lee, simply put an old mattress in the yard and taught her how to practice flipping on it. But little Sunisha's energy is too exuberant, the small backyard has not been able to satisfy her, sometimes in the outdoors or in the park to play, she will not be able to help but come to the scene to do a few backflips.
To be on the safe side, her parents sent her to the Midwest Gymnastics Team in Mingzhou. There, Sunisha's own wild style of painting quickly attracted the attention of coach Jace Grappa.
Jace Grappa (left) Image source: Network
"She's very young, but she's talented, a very primitive one," Grappa said in an interview with Elle. "Her flip is a little crazy, and she doesn't feel scared at all when she's handstanding."
This is a brave little girl.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="211" > the pride of a lower-class nation</h1>
Graba became Sunissa's coach and remained there for more than a decade. For Suniza, who trains 36 to 38 hours a week on the gymnastics team, Graba and his wife are like another pair of parents.
In vaulting, uneven bars, balance beams and free gymnastics, Sunisha is best at uneven bars and balance beams. In the gymnastics women's team final, which just ended tuesday, she scored a game-high 15.400 points on uneven bars, helping the U.S. team still win the silver medal despite Biles's mistake and withdrawal.
In the team final uneven bars event, Sunisha performed perfectly. Source: Agence France-Presse
But the strength of Sunisha's other projects should not be underestimated. At the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Team Trials in June, she won first place on both high and low bars and balance beams, and won the second place ticket to the Tokyo Olympics after Byers and the women's team, becoming the first Hmong athlete in U.S. history to participate in the Olympic Games.
For The American Hmong, this is undoubtedly a great honor.
The Hmong in the United States have little to do with the Hmong in China, and the vast majority of them are from Vietnam and Laos.
In 1975, the United States, which had lost the battlefield in Vietnam, decided to withdraw, which affected several Southeast Asian countries and caused a large number of immigrants. At the time, about 250,000 Hmong people left their homes and came to the United States, most of whom were resettled in the Twin Cities of Mingzhou, where they mixed with other low-income families in public housing complexes.
Today, Twin Cities has the largest Hmong community in the United States, with about 80,000 people living here out of about 300,000 Hmong in the United States.
Minnesota has the largest Hmong community in the United States Image source: MPR NEWS
As the number of Hmong refugees coming to the United States increased, media coverage of them began to be stereotyped and insulting. The Hmong are not described as war veterans who have been given political asylum, but rather as primitive and backward peoples who lack the ability to survive in the modern world and integrate into the United States.
Most Americans don't know who the Hmong are or why they're in the United States. It's easy for uninformed people to see these newcomers as people who eat the government's white food.
In 1980, a Twin City resident complained to the local newspaper, "They're aliens living on the taxes I pay, and that's what makes me angry." Shots were fired at the windows of refugee homes, injuring residents. Two Hmong brothers were knocked unconscious with sticks by two white attackers on their way home from washing dishes in the middle of the night.
Hmong Americans still retain their traditional ethnic costumes and celebrate the Hmong New Year together. Image source: Network
The local media outlet Star of Minneapolis published an article at the time describing his impressions of the Hmong family: they looked like they had "just come out of National Geographic magazine," wearing "colorful" clothing and "black teeth."
Other media reports have accused the Hmong of having a "vast customary divide" between Hmong culture and American culture, which makes it difficult for the Hmong to "cope with modern American ideas."
The Hmong have always been one of the poorest groups in the United States. In 2009, almost 27 percent of Hmong-American households remained in poverty. In a 2010 survey, the average U.S. population had a per capita income of $26,279, compared to $11,766 for Hmong Americans. They are mainly concentrated in the declining manufacturing sector.
Hmong families living in Mingzhou Image source: Network
Until now, the economic plight of Hmong Americans has not improved much. According to a 2020 study by the Asian American Society for the Advancement of Justice, almost 60 percent of Hmong Americans are low-income, and more than a quarter live in poverty. Compared to all racial groups, they perform worst on different income indicators, even worse than native Indians in the United States, the report said.
Sunisha Lee comes from such a Hmong family. Both of her parents fled to the United States with their family from Laos when they were young, finding shelter in the Twin Cities. When Sunisha was two years old, her mother, Yeff, took her with her to marry John, a single father with two children, and they later had three more children together. Most of their relatives also live in the same community.
Sunissa's family is a big family source: COURTESY
For such a group that has suffered and has always been at the bottom of society, it is absolutely an honor to be able to give birth to an Olympian.
Sunissa has become the pride of this ordinary and lively family, and the pride of the entire American Hmong community, in their eyes, this is the first big star to come out of the Hmong community.
"Many people don't know the Hmong people, and we have gone through a lot of suffering to come here." In an interview with ESPN, Sunissa's father, John Lee, said: "Have you seen Clint Eastwood's movie Classic Cars? It tells stories about the Hmong people, but despite this, not many people know of our existence. Perhaps the appearance of Sunisha can make people start to understand us. ”
On July 3, before leaving for Tokyo, Sunissa's family threw a grand party for her in the community, with more than 300 relatives alone.
Before leaving, Sunisha's family gave her a big party source: The Interstellar Tribune
In Hmong culture, there is a custom called "khi tes", where people tie a white rope around the wrist of those who want to give blessings and congratulations to show good wishes. To avoid the risk of infection, Sunisha did not appear at the party that day. Her family changed the form of "khi tes" into inviting guests to write their blessings on small cards tied with white ropes, which were shown to Sunisha after the party.
On this day, small cards carrying blessings hung all over the backyard of Sunissa's house.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="212" > turning point in fate</h1>
2019 was a huge turning point for Sonia's fate.
At the time, Suniza was in Kansas City preparing for the National Gymnastics Championships. For Suniza, she can only get a ticket to the Tokyo Olympics if she gets a good place in this competition.
She's bound.
As a result, two days before the race, John Lee accidentally fell off a ladder while helping his friend trim the branches. After waking up from his hospital bed, doctors told him that his spinal cord was injured and almost completely paralyzed from the chest down.
This sudden bad news made Sunissa suddenly collapse, and she wanted to fly back to her father immediately. Coach Grappa also feared that her father's illness would distract Suniza and cause an accident on the field.
In 19 years, Sunissa's father had a sudden accident Source: Network
Father John Lee knew how important the game was for his daughter, and he insisted on convincing Sunisha to keep playing.
Sonia's father has always been the most supportive of her family. Before every game, John boosts morale by giving a "passion" speech to his daughter, who has hardly missed every game of Sunisha until an accident that happened two years ago.
The day before the race, John Lee made a video call with Sunissa from her hospital bed at ICU and, like every pre-match speech in the past, encouraged Sunissa: As long as she tried her best, no matter what ranking she got, she would always be the first in his eyes.
Over the next three days, Sunissa won the high and low bars and won the silver medal in the individual all-around with a time of only 0.350 points behind Byers.
Sunissa, who participated in the World Championships in 2019 Image source: LAURENCE GRIFFITHS
It was this game that gave her a ticket to the Olympics and made history for the Hmong Americans.
"I burst into tears when I saw my daughter standing with Byers." In the hospital room, John told the Media of Ming State. He knew how difficult it was for his daughter to come this far.
At the time, not many people knew, other than Suniza and her coach, that the girl was fighting for her father.
In order to pay for the high cost of treatment, Sonia's family had to launch a fundraiser on the gofundme.com.
Now, John is recovering well, but still needs to go to the hospital regularly for rehabilitation. Sunisha took on the responsibility of picking up her father when she was not training, or taking care of her younger siblings at home for her mother's class.
Sunisha and her father John Lee Source: The Web
In addition to suffering the pain of her loved one's injuries in silence, the outbreak of the new crown epidemic has brought a heavy blow to Sunisha. Her aunt and uncle, who took care of her since childhood, have passed away one after another during the COVID-19 pandemic, and her gymnastics career has come to a standstill due to the pandemic.
First, the Gymnastics World Cup in Stuttgart, Germany, scheduled for March 2020, was cancelled. Sunissa had planned to complete a new gymnastics move in this competition, and if successful, she would have a gymnastics move named after herself – a dream for every gymnast.
Then there is the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics. After seeing the news on Twitter, Sunisha burst into tears, she had been preparing for the match for a long time and had been battling years of foot injuries.
Image source: Getty Pictures
Fortunately, even if she was not favored by fate, Sunissa finally stood on the Olympic stage on behalf of her ethnic group after a year of surviving this situation.
Her abilities were recognized by Liukin. "It was the unparalleled spiritual strength she showed during the most difficult times of her life that made her who she is now." In an interview with Elle, former gymnastics queen Liukin commented.
It's all a bitter end.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="213" > the next Byers of the U.S. team? </h1>
At this stage, The Bayers of the American team is still the first place in the women's gymnastics world, and she has dominated the list for many years and is recognized as a shoulder player. So when gymnastics is mentioned, when American athletes are mentioned, everyone subconsciously only thinks of Byers's name.
However, in the women's team final on July 27, she made a big mistake in her first vault event, and then withdrew from the team final. At the press conference later, she said that the pressure was too great and decided to even retire from the personal all-around final.
Few people noticed Sunisha Lee next to Byers. Her appearance is not ostentatious, and her expression is always faint.
In fact, she may be the closest gymnast to Byers on team Usa in the last seven years, and she is only 18 years old this year.
Sunissa (left) with Byers (right) Source: Sunissa's ins
When Byers temporarily decided to retire from the team final, Suniza was told she needed to replace Byers in free gymnastics, but she did not warm up before that.
"Honestly, we didn't really know how to do it at the time," Sunissa said in a post-match interview. "Byers leads the whole team and it's really difficult and stressful when we have to step up and do what we have to do."
But she immediately adjusted her form and scored 13.666 points in free gymnastics — already the best in the United States.
Now, she carries not only the hope of the entire Hmong community, but also the hope of the United States in the women's gymnastics program.
Because of the epidemic, her relatives and friends could not come to the scene, but they had planned to get up at four or five o'clock during the game and hold a party in the community.
"I'm excited to represent the Hmong community and to be the first Hmong American to participate in the Olympics (for me) is really important." In an interview with the Star Tribune, Sunisha said.
Source: Star Tribune
Sunisha on the field is always calm and calm, and her movements are precise, but outside the arena, she jumps out of the dual identity of a professional gymnast and a Hmong star, and she is just a young and cute little girl.
She likes to camp, fish, is a fan, and has a little superstition.
In her room, there was a drawer dedicated to "unlucky tights," and she kept the gymnastics suit she wore every time she made a big mistake during training or competition, and almost never opened it. And those "lucky tights" were carefully hung in the closet by her.
She also likes to share her daily routine on Instagram and Twitter, and when she first arrived at the Olympic Village, she immediately posted a punch card photo on Instagram.
Group photo of the U.S. women's gymnastics team, Sunissa is the first on the right Source: Sunisha's ins
After the team final, she posed with Byers on Instagram and wrote, "Proud of you and everything you've accomplished!" You are my role model and the person I have always admired. ”
Now, she has also become the admiration of many young Americans.
More and more Miao families began to support their children's sports dreams, and the little girls followed her steps into the gymnastics club. From Suniza, they saw endless possibilities.
At one event, Sunisha signed an autograph for another Hmong gymnast, Calina Vang. Image source: Network
Written by | Chen Jinsong You Manyi