The Gymnast Who Hasn’t Turned Off Her Olympic Countdown

Together with the remainder of the world, athletes have had their careers upended by the coronavirus pandemic. They’re giving The New York Occasions an intimate take a look at their journeys in periodic installments by way of the remainder of the yr.

There are solely 4 spots on the 2021 United States Olympic crew for ladies’s inventive gymnasts, down from 5 on the 2016 Summer time Video games, and Sunisa Lee, a 17-year-old highschool junior from St. Paul, Minn., has an excellent probability of grabbing considered one of them.

On the world championships last fall, Lee, whom individuals name Suni, helped the USA win a crew gold medal and likewise took residence two particular person medals, a silver on the ground train and a bronze on the uneven bars.

However it was Lee’s efficiency on the nationwide championships in August that proved her toughness, as she excelled regardless of going through a scenario that would have crushed her.

A day earlier than Lee left for the nationals in Kansas Metropolis, Mo., her father and largest fan, John, fell off a ladder whereas serving to a pal trim a tree department and sustained a spinal twine damage. He was paralyzed from the chest down.

Lee instructed only some gymnasts on the competitors about her father’s damage as a result of she was afraid of being overwhelmed by emotion and he or she didn’t need any distractions. Through the first two observe days on the nationals, she may hardly focus as a result of as her father ready for an operation on his backbone.

However on her first day of competitors, he contacted her by FaceTime from his hospital mattress. She recalled his saying, “I’m OK. Simply go on the market and do what you usually do.”

In order that’s what she did. Lee completed second to Simone Biles within the all-around occasion and gained the uneven bars competition. Nowadays she’s restricted to merely swinging on the bars to maintain her hand energy.

Her objective is to make it to the rescheduled Olympics subsequent summer season for her father, for the remainder of her household and for fellow members of the Hmong group, an ethnic group from Asia that has established a big inhabitants in and round St. Paul.

This interview has been condensed and evenly edited for readability.

It hasn’t actually hit me that the Olympics aren’t occurring this summer season. I’ve a countdown to the Olympic trials on my telephone. They’d have been in June. I get unhappy once I see it, however I gained’t delete it. I’m scared to let go of the truth that it’s not occurring, although I do know it’s not. I don’t need it to be actual. I suppose I don’t settle for it as a result of the Olympics have been my largest dream and objective. I’ve been coaching for that objective day by day for 12 years now and couldn’t look forward to the Olympics to occur.

After which after the Olympics, my household had deliberate to go to Laos, as a result of my mother and father are from there. They wished us to see what their lives have been like earlier than they got here to the USA. They need us to know that not all the things got here so simply for them, they usually need us to do higher and check out tougher so we will have good lives. So it’s disappointing to must cancel that journey. It’s all so disappointing.

My motivation to get to the Olympics has all the time been my household and my group. It will be such a giant deal for a Hmong American to be within the Olympics for the USA. I need to be top-of-the-line on the planet, however I additionally need to succeed for my household — we now have a extremely large Hmong household — and the wonderful supporters which have helped me. I need to do it as a result of lots of people don’t know that I’m Hmong or what Hmong even is.

Proper now, I’m at residence many of the day as a result of so many issues are closed. My gymnasium closed in March, and I used to spend perhaps six or seven hours within the gymnasium day by day, in order that’s been bizarre and totally different. Now I spend lots of time with my household. I reside with my mother and father and my three youthful siblings who’re 3, eight and 10. I even have two older siblings, my stepsiblings, who stick with us typically. All of us assist my dad now that he’s in a wheelchair. I’ve additionally been serving to my mother with cooking and cleansing, as a result of I do know she has been by way of so much with my dad. I understand how to make all of the Asian egg rolls like my mother.

However we simply discovered that our gymnasium is opening on June 1, and I’m actually excited. To have the ability to go to the gymnasium and really prepare once more is simply loopy. I believe it’s going to be wonderful. I’m so prepared for it.

Faculty throughout quarantine isn’t so dangerous for me, as a result of I’m used to principally doing it on-line. I used to go to the precise public college for an hour a day. I’d go to at least one class and do the remaining at residence. I take Algebra 2, International Research, World Literature and Chemistry, and now we get our assignments on-line each morning. I missed lots of college final yr due to the world championships, so I’ve been actually busy catching up with my assignments. I actually miss college as a result of I bought to see my associates there. Now we simply FaceTime.

I’m going to the gymnasium typically to do my work. It’s closed to the general public, however my coach, Jess Graba, opens the doorways for me and he’s there cleansing up the gymnasium or sending emails whereas I work. One in every of my teammates, Lyden Saltness, does schoolwork there, too, as a result of her mother is a instructor and he or she comes to assist us. There are lots of people in my home, and it’s quieter and the web is best on the gymnasium. I arrange within the foyer and check out not to consider how a lot I’ve misplaced as a result of I haven’t been coaching and the way I haven’t seen my associates in such a very long time.

Currently, I’ve been doing a little primary conditioning or stretching on the gymnasium once I’m there on college days. It’s sort of the identical stuff I’d do if I used to be at residence. If the Olympics weren’t canceled, I’d be on my strategy to peaking, which suggests I’d’ve been in the very best form ever, doing my hardest routines. My coach says it would take many months for me to get again to the place I used to be earlier than the quarantine. He says for each week I missed, it’s going to take three weeks of labor to get that health again. I’ve missed about 9 weeks already.

I’m attempting to remain optimistic, however I do fear about issues. I fear that I’m going to randomly catch the coronavirus and convey it residence and never even know that I’ve it, after which my dad catches it. He’s actually weak proper now, so clearly that will be actually horrible. I fear that nothing is ever going to return to regular and the Olympics subsequent yr might be canceled. I’m simply scared that I gained’t be capable of get again to the place I used to be bodily. I don’t know if my physique can take one other 4 years of this, as a result of a lot psychological, bodily and emotional coaching goes into it. However there’s nothing I can do about any of this so, I suppose, I’ll simply hope for the very best and imagine that if I can put within the exhausting work, good issues will occur.