St. Paul gymnast Suni Lee wins all-around gold at Tokyo Olympics
Sunisa Lee of Team United States poses with her gold medal after winning the Women's All-Around Final on day six of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Gymnastics Centre on July 29, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. (Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images / Getty Images)
TOKYO (FOX 9) - Suni Lee, 18, of St. Paul, Minnesota is an Olympic champion.
Lee won the women’s individual all-around gold medal in gymnastics at the Tokyo Olympics Thursday. The 18-year-old hit all four of her routines on vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise to finish first ahead of Rebeca Andrade of Brazil and Angelina Melnikova of the Russian Olympic Committee.
Sunisa Lee of Team United States competes on balance beam during the Women's All-Around Final on day six of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Gymnastics Centre on July 29, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images / Getty Images)
Lee is the fifth-straight American to win the Olympic all-around title. Her win was also historic, as she is the first Hmong American to compete, and now medal, at the Olympics.
On Tuesday, Lee helped the U.S. to a team silver medal, nailing her routines on uneven bars and balance beam and filling in on floor exercise for Simone Biles, who dropped out of the team competition after one rotation due to mental health concerns. Biles also pulled out of the all-around competition.
Lee will have more chances to medal next week when she competes in both the uneven bars and balance beam event finals.
This story was reported from Minneapolis.