Asian-American gymnast Sunisa Lee 

Asian-American Sunisa Lee Wins the Olympic Women’s Gymnastics All-Around Gold

Her coronation came at the conclusion of three surreal days that saw the greatest ever gymnast withdraw and completely upend expectations of how the event would unfold

By Edward Era Barbacena

TOKYO - Sunisa Lee stepped into the tiny/huge footsteps of the great Simone Biles to capture the all-around title at the Tokyo Games on her Olympic debut. The 18-year-old becomes the first Hmong American to win an Olympic medal with a performance that was cheered to the rafters by friends and family back home in St. Paul, Minnesota.

U.S. gymnast Sunisa Lee won a gold medal for women’s individual all-around gymnastics at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday.

The Brazilian Rebecca Andrade took the lead after the opening vault but a confident performance in her favorite event, the uneven bars, put Lee ahead and despite showing a few nerves on the beam she closed it out with a technically demanding floor routine starting with a double-twisting double back. Andrade, who twice landed out of bounds on the floor, took the silver with Russian Angelina Melnikova claiming bronze. It is the fifth straight American victory in the women’s all-around. Biles, who won the title in Rio, pulled out on Wednesday because of mental-health issues.

Lee, an 18-year-old Hmong-American  became the highest-qualifying U.S. gymnast for the all-around final after Simone Biles, considered by many to be the world’s greatest gymnast, dropped out of the competition this week. Biles cited mental health concerns in explaining her decision.

Lee is the fifth straight American to claim victory in the all-around Olympic final. Rebeca Andrade of Brazil won silver and Angelina Melnikova of Russia took home the bronze.

With a total of 57.433 points, Lee edged out Andrade, who became the first Latin American athlete to earn a gymnastics all-around medal. Lee’s spectacular uneven bars set ― the hardest one executed in the competition so far ― secured her lead in the final, according to The Associated Press.