IN AN OLYMPICS OF SURVIVAL, SUNI LEE DIDN’T QUIT — SHE WON
Fighting life adversity of her own, the U.S. teen pushed through mental and physical challenges to achieve what Simone Biles couldn't in Tokyo — compete in the all-around gymnastics final and win gold
For the millions of social-media marauders who believe they control life’s perceptions with a SEND button, I have news: You will not dictate how the world recalls the Tokyo Olympics. Go ahead and shower Simone Biles with love and comfort while Twitter-bombing those who ignore groupthink and wonder — reasonably — if she preferred to withdraw from the gymnastics competition than lose. But in the process of typing, please note that the record books only will see one line atop the women’s all-around event.
Gold — Suni Lee, United States.
At best, this Olympiad will be remembered for survival. A distressed, desperate undertaking that never should have happened has produced, as expected, too many bewildering developments. The greatest of all female gymnasts, Biles, launched an ugly debate on athletes and mental health rather than secure her place in sports history. The coronavirus has left at least two Olympians hospitalized and 40 in quarantine as Japan records record case numbers. The sight of too much red — Russian athletes once banned as punishment for a rampant, state-sponsored doping scandal — reminds us of the International Olympic Committee’s naked corruption and how president Thomas Bach can be bought off by Vladimir Putin. Without the starpower of Biles and another leading light given to mysterious exits, Naomi Osaka, and dampened by Katie Ledecky’s swim losses to Australian phenom Ariarne Titmus, NBC is taking such a ratings pummeling halfway around the planet that advertisers are panicking.
These Games have been, in a word, dreary.
Which is why we should cherish and salute those who’ve fought on and triumphed, despite adversity of their own. Two nights after Biles removed herself from her would-be coronation to focus on her emotional well-being — leading to reactions ranging from Michael Phelps (“It broke my heart’’) to Justin Bieber (“What does it mean to gain the world but forfeit your soul?’’) to Texas attorney general Aaron Reitz (“A national embarrassment”) — who would emerge from the cacophony but Lee? She had a myriad of reasons to stop competing, walk away and rationalize, as the presumptive G.O.A.T. did, “There’s more to life than just gymnastics.’’
Instead, six years younger than Biles at 18, she won.
“It doesn’t feel like real life,’’ said Lee, uttering the triumphant, feelgood words normally associated with the Olympics.
Perhaps it isn’t fair to equate her personal struggles to those of Biles. But upon closer inspection, perhaps it is. Just as Biles was dealing with pain, Lee was suffering in different but undeniably debilitating ways, still limited by lingering effects of a broken left foot. Just as Biles has battled the pressures of 21st-century culture, as a Black icon trying to win glory for many more people than herself, Lee was the first Hmong American to qualify for the Olympics and was trying to become the first Asian of any nationality to win the all-around. Just as Biles has encountered obstacles away from the sport, Lee has struggled with family misfortune — her father, who once vowed to do backflips with her if she won Olympic gold, fell off a ladder in 2019 and is confined to a wheelchair while paralyzed below his chest; last year, her aunt and uncle died from COVID-19 in her hometown of St. Paul, Minn., amid Black Lives Matter protests after the police murder of George Floyd in nearby Minneapolis.
A teenager plunged into her own depression, confronted by the same demons encountered by her idol. And when Biles chose not to defend her all-around title Thursday, Lee felt the same weight of expectations. “I had to switch gears. There was a lot of pressure,’’ she said. “We were all coming in to compete for second, and this whole season I’ve been second to (Biles). People were counting on me to get second or win the gold medal. But I tried not to focus on that, or I would have been too nervous.’’
If there was anxiety, she hid it admirably. When Lee could afford not even a hiccup in a tight competition, she nailed her final floor routine. With Biles watching from the stands, Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade responded by landing out of bounds twice. The mishaps assured America of its fifth consecutive all-around champion in what was supposed to be Biles’ moment. Stunningly, it belonged to a raw teammate, in the Olympic moment we’ve awaited and wanted, with Suni Lee in tears, the gold medal around her neck.
“I want people to know that you can reach your dreams,’’ she said. “I feel like I proved that when you put your heart into something, you can do something great with it.’’
Said her coach, Jess Graba: “She’s tough as nails. People don’t see that. They don’t know how hurt she is. They don’t know how stressed out she is. They don’t know how nervous she is.’’
All while Biles was becoming her biggest cheerleader. “CONGRATS PRINCESS absolutely killed it!!!’’ the former champ wrote on Instagram, apparently feeling better. “OLYMPIC CHAMPION RIGHT HERE!!! So so so beyond proud of you!!!!”
That quickly, Biles moved to the back burner, replaced by another story of uncommon perseverance and courage. Lee’s parents, John and Yeev, are natives of Laos. As members of the Hmong community, which settled in U.S. cities such as St. Paul after leaving Southeast Asia as refugees, they have experienced recent anti-Asian backlash. “People hate on us for no reason,’’ Suni said in a recent Elle profile. “It would be cool to show that we are more than what they say.’’
She could have cracked. Instead, she conquered, temporarily quieting political-leaning American media who conveniently used Biles’ decision as another shameful battleground. Said MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace, attacking conservatives who criticized Biles as a quitter: “I found it soul-crushing to see a little pocket of doughy white right-leaning losers, who probably have a hard time getting dates, attacking her. And I think if we want to know the answer to the question, how f’d up is our country, just look at the reaction to what happened this week in Tokyo with Simone Biles.” This is typical of the garbage we’re force-fed on TV. Wallace was more interested in insulting the Clay Travises of the world than focusing on the mental health angle, which is most urgent here.
The lesson of Suni Lee is profound. Everyone deals with heavy stuff in life. Everyone hurts. Everyone cries. Everyone has demons. But some fight through. That isn’t meant to disparage Simone Biles, but it is intended to commend and celebrate Suni Lee and other humans who stare down life. Ledecky, too, was impressive in that vein. She could have pouted and faded after losing twice to Titmus, “the Terminator,’’ but she refused to lose the 1,500-meter freestyle. Before the race, she thought of her family.
“I had to turn the page quickly. Kind of each stroke, I was thinking of my grandparents,’’ Ledecky said. “They’re the toughest four people I know, and that’s what helped me get through that.’’
Her response led to an inevitable question about Biles. “I feel like I can handle the pressure,’’ she said. “The biggest pressure I have is the pressure I put on myself, and I feel like I’ve gotten past that over the years. I truly just want to enjoy this experience.’’
Pressure? Consider the burden of Si Woo Kim and Sungjae Im, the South Korean golfers who’ve been mandated by their government to win Olympic medals — or face two years of mandatory military service. “We have fake pressure in sports, it’s not life or death,” said multi-millionaire Rory McIlroy, who was partnered with Im in the first round. “This is real-life pressure.’’
One of Tokyo’s redeeming moments — and, oh, how we need them — will be of Lee using technology to FaceTime her father. In his wheelchair, he was among a gathering of dozens at a community center in Minnesota.
“I did it!’’ she yelled into the phone, as tears spilled on both continents.
And to think she’d had the gumption to say, as part of the group that won silver after Biles exited the team event, “We do not owe anyone a gold medal. We are winners in our hearts.’’
Only hours later, she would show her heart to the world.
Jay Mariotti, called “the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes sports columns for Substack and a Wednesday media column for Barrett Sports Media while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts in production today. He’s an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and radio talk host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects. Compensation for this column is donated to the Chicago Sun-Times Charity Trust.