ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
Suni Lee is 'one of the best stories' in Minnesota history - period
She smiled wryly after her vault, as if she knew a secret.
She clapped, once, after her floor exercise, as if she knew what she had done.
Moments later, Suni Lee of St. Paul, an 18-year-old born to immigrant parents, became the best story in America, one of the best stories Minnesota has ever been able to claim.
Her Hmong family insisted on seeing the United States as the land of hope and dreams.
But who dares to dream this big?
"My Dad said do what I normally do, and go out and do my best,'' Lee said. "He said not to focus on the score because in their heart I was already a winner.''
Entire article: https://www.startribune.com/suni-lee-st-paul-gold-medal-best-story-minnesota/600082878/
A father's love and the embrace of an immigrant community: the improbable story of Sunisa Lee's gold medal
Sunisa Lee was standing in the middle of Ariake Gymnastics Centre, standing on the verge of Olympic glory, standing 90 seconds from fulfilling a goal that seemed impossible from her first tumbles as a 6-year-old daughter of immigrants in Minnesota until, well, about 48 hours ago.
John Lee was sitting half a world away watching his 18-year-old daughter on television, sitting in the wheelchair that has mostly confined him since an accident left him partially paralyzed, sitting in the middle of a watch party for the local Hmong community where moments like this — Olympic greatness — simply don’t happen.
They were separated, father and daughter. Yet, somehow, they couldn’t have been closer.
“This,” Suni Lee said, a gold medal draped around her neck after coming through on floor and winning the women's all-around competition, “is our dream.”
It was an improbable one. Oh, Suni had talent from Day 1, but what did her family know about elite gymnastics? Besides, she said, within the Hmongs exists a cultural hesitation to push toward big goals, to even step too far outside their close-knit families.
The Hmongs are a people from Southeast Asia who fought alongside the United States during the Vietnam War, got left behind and had to flee as refugees. Some made it to America, only to struggle for recognition, let alone acceptance.
They tend to stay within, Suni said, leaning on brothers and sisters and cousins and grandparents. Yet here was John Lee, who had come from Laos, not only never holding his bold, fearless daughter back, but also pushing her to consider even unthinkable heights — American heights.
You come so your children can have a better life. Why not the best life?
Why not you, he’d say? Why not us, he’d ask?
Entire article: https://sports.yahoo.com/a-fathers-...tory-of-sunisa-lees-gold-medal-172432761.html
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