UPDATE: Suni Lee is an Olympic champion in the women's all-around. Full recap here.
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Suni Lee stepped up in a big way when her teammates needed her most.
After Simone Biles made a surprising exit from the women's team final event, Lee, who has completed the most difficult uneven bars routine in the world, went big on the bars and added a high-scoring balance beam set to keep her team in medal contention.
The Minnesota native and Midwest Gymnastics Center athlete posted a 15.400, tying her with Belgium's Nina Derwael for the best score on the uneven bars. In the balance beam, Lee secured a score of 14.133, the second-best in that event of the competition.
Watch her incredible performance below:
Tokyo Olympics
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"We did it for Simone," Lee said after the event.
Now, Lee has secured her first Olympic gold in the individual all-around, again looking to fill a void as Biles remained out of the competition.
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Adding to the pressure in Tokyo was an American winning streak riding on Team USA.
The U.S. has won the all-around competition every Olympics since Carly Patterson won gold in the 2004 Games.
Lee has already secured her spot in history as the first Hmong American to compete in the Olympics. And her road here was anything but easy.
In 2019, her father was in an accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down. In 2020, she lost an aunt and uncle to COVID-19.
Lee secured her ticket Tokyo while pushing through an ankle injury.
