Suni Lee shared perception into her household dynamic in a current TikTok video, revealing that she by no means knew the identification of her organic dad.
“I have five siblings, and they’re three brothers and two sisters,” the Olympic gold medalist, 21, informed her followers in a “Get Ready With Me” video on Tuesday, September 24.
“All my siblings are either my half or my step because I don’t know who my biological dad is,” Suni added with amusing.
The Team USA gymnast was born as Sunisa Phabsomphou in Saint Paul, Minnesota, to mom Yeev Thoj. When Suni was 2 years previous, her mother started courting a person named John Lee, and he helped increase the Olympic champion. Though John and Yeev by no means bought married, Suni started utilizing his final title when she was a young person.
Suni’s mother and father all the time supported her curiosity in gymnastics, with John even constructing the rising star a stability beam of their yard.
“She goes to the gym and she practices, but we don’t have a beam here. So I couldn’t afford a real beam, so I built her one,” John informed Today in July 2021 as Suni competed within the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. “I am proud. The family’s proud. The community is very proud of her.”
Before competing in Tokyo, Suni turned to her father for recommendation and motivation, John gushed to ESPN.
“You’re not doing this for nobody else anymore,” he informed his daughter. “Not for your friends, not for the Hmong community. You are doing this for yourself now. OK? Enjoy. That’s your only goal. You got this.”
John informed ESPN that he “tries to be confident for her.” He admitted that he was as soon as “hard on her and she’d get mad,” however he shifted his perspective when her profession took off and the stress grew to become intense.
“Now she’s used to me telling her to go out there and have fun,” he added.
Just as John has been by Suni’s facet for her gymnastics profession, Suni supported her father throughout his well being struggles. In 2019, John fell from a ladder whereas serving to a pal lower down a tree department and was paralyzed from the waist down.
“I thought he was going to pass away when he was in the hospital, so I didn’t want to go to nationals and compete. But he told me to go, that he really wanted me to go. So, I did,” she informed The New York Times. “Now I realize that if he didn’t push me like that, I wouldn’t be in the spot I am right now with the Olympics so close. I knew he was watching me, so I did great for him.”
The gymnast went on to win gold, silver and bronze on the 2019 championship in Stuttgart, Germany. At the Tokyo Games, she took house one gold, one silver and one bronze medal. Suni returned to the Olympics in Paris this yr, the place she gained a gold medal and two bronze.
Suni continued to have her dad’s again after his accident. “On the anniversary, I texted him and said, ‘Dad, I’m so proud of how far you’ve come and that you’ve come back so strong,’” she informed the outlet. “He is still in a wheelchair, but he can use his hands and he is getting better every day.”
