Suni Lee: Team USA's new Olympic gold medallist couldn't afford a beam so her father built her one

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By Flemming in Sports
Updated 3 years ago

Sunisa Lee has just won gold at Tokyo 2020, in individual gymnastics all-around. The 18-year-old athlete is the first-ever Hmong American Olympian. Named Sunisa Phabsomphou at birth, before adopting her father's name Lee, she grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her parents, John Lee and Yeev Thoj, fled Laos to the US as refugees of the Vietnam War. She has five brothers and sisters, Jonah, Lucky and Noah and Shyenne and Evionn, who is also a gymnast. Her close friends and family call her "Suni".

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