St. Paul native Suni Lee qualifies for Olympic gymnastics all-round final in Paris

MN State Senator Foung Hawj in Paris for Suni Lee

Minnesota State Senator Foung Hawj was joined by Suni Lee's family in Paris ahead of Suni's performance at the Olympics.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - There was some big news out of the Olympics on Sunday for St. Paul's hometown hero, Suni Lee. The reigning all-around gold medal gymnastics champion has officially qualified to defend her crown in Paris.

Lee had to qualify as one of the top two gymnasts from Team USA to advance in the all-around competition. And with Simone Biles as your teammate, that is no easy feat.

But Lee crushed it, finishing second behind Biles for the United States. Lee nailed her specialty event, the uneven bars, in her very last routine of the competition to narrowly beat out teammate Jordan Chiles for that coveted number two slot in the women’s all-around. So, she gets the chance to defend her gold medal she won in Tokyo.

Considering how far Lee has come from a kidney disease diagnosis in the last couple of years, and giving up her college gymnastics career at Auburn University, it is an unbelievable accomplishment.

Adding to the excitement in Paris, many family members are on hand to support. The group surprised our FOX 9 morning show via video Zoom just a few hours after the qualifying event that several of them attended in the arena.

"It is organic being live at the stadium itself," explained State Senator Foung Hawj, the DFL Assistant Majority Leader, who made the trip. "You know, it is just cheering. And I was trying to put my camera, I do live Facebooking. But you know, it happened so fast. I just give up. I said, ‘I am not going to Facebook this time.’ I am just going to enjoy my time here because it is quite costly getting those tickets, you know, those couple thousand dollar tickets. I really enjoyed it, saturate myself with the event. And it was well worth the time being here."

Up next for Lee, she and her USA teammates will go for team gold on Tuesday, where they will be overwhelming favorites. A group of her extended family members and supporters are planning a July 30 watch party at an east metro restaurant to watch the event together live at 11:15am.

And then Thursday is the women’s all-around final. It is there she will try to hold onto her gold medal title against Biles and the rest of the world’s best.