Sunisa Lee is the reigning Women's All-Around Gymnastic Olympic Champion and the first Asian-American woman to ever hold the title. In Back for More than the Crown: Athlete Voices with Sunisa Lee, Suni speaks with women's sports reporter Ari Chambers on what it was like to inspire other Hmong Americans, the dynasty that is USA Gymnastics, and how she balances an career with a recurring health issue.
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"It was just honestly so surreal. I didn't even think that I would make it to the Olympics, let alone win an Olympic gold medal, and then be the first Hmong Americans to be able to do that."
"It honestly didn't hit me when I was on the podium, but after the fact I was like, wow, that's actually really cool."
" Looking back at it now, I don't even know how I dealt with all the pressure and how I continued to stay so calm under all of that."
"I didn't even know that I would break a streak if I didn't win and I didn't even think about that."
"I actually woke up that morning having a panic attack and I'm like, what am I doing ? I'm like what do I do? And I mean, I just talked to myself. I had my dad talk to me, and he gave me his little pep talk and it calmed me down. I just went out there and did my stuff."
"It really starts off with me like, oh my gosh, I don't think I can do this. I don't think I can do this. And I'm like, wait, no Suni, you're going to do this. You've done literally everything you have possibly could have done to be able to be in this moment. I'm just like, at this point, you've done so many numbers, you need to go out there and just do what you normally do."
"I always say "Nothing more, nothing less. My average is good enough." I think that that was something that was really important because I was always trying to overdo it when I was competing and I was never just going and doing my normal."
"I've always been so healthy my whole life and I literally woke up on a random day swollen as ever, eyes swollen shut, my whole body swollen. I'm like, what is going on? I go into practice and my fingers don't fit into my grips and I can't hold onto the bar. I'm like, something is wrong."
"It was just scary because having the doctors tell you, oh, we don't know if you're going to be able to do gymnastics again was probably one of the most scariest feelings ever, because it's my outlet. That's my safe place. When I was going through something, I could always go into the gym and work it off or leave it outside."
"Dealing with this was so hard because I literally couldn't go to the gym, no matter what. If I was having a family issue or something, I'd go into the gym and throw the bar and be like, I feel so much better. But I literally couldn't because I was just stuck."
"I think that's something that really helped me was coming back to Classics because I didn't even care about getting a medal. I didn't care about doing any of that. I know I'm not ready. But the main goal was to just go back out there and just enjoy and have fun and remember what it feels like to be out there because I think I kind of took it for granted a little bit."
"Jordan, Jordan is my girl. Anytime I think about the Olympics, I just think about me and Jordan. I really love that girl and she's just calmed me down so much and always been so supportive and I can always just see us doing it together. And that's just the one thing that I want for the both of us."