Sunisa Lee an American Olympian won the women’s Olympic gymnastics All Round gold medal on Thursday in the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics in Japan
The 18 year old Olympian Lee who’s also the youngest member of the US team,said she was not expecting to be a gold winner, she was competing for silver medal, she said after winning the gold medal.
Sunisa Lee and Jade Carey of Team United States fist bump during Women’s Qualification on day two of the Tokyo 2020 (Photo ; Courtesy )
“Coming into this competition I didn’t even think that I could be competing for a gold medal, I was coming to compete for a silver medal.
I knew that I just had to stay focused. I wasn’t trying to worry about the scores at all. It’s crazy. It doesn’t feel like real life at all.” Lee Said
The Brazilian Rebeca Andrade won the silver medal this being the first time ever medal for her country in women’s artistic gymnastics while The Russian gymnast Angelina Melnikova won the bronze medal adding to the gold she won in the team final.
Simone Biles who was expected to win the gold metal in the event watched as Lee fought hard to win the gold while Jade Carey, who replaced Biles in the finals for the U.S. team, finished in the eighth position.
Biles surrendered at the final competition on Monday when Team USA was expecting her to dominate the event since she has a clear unbeaten record since 2011
She has captured every major international competition since 2013 except the 2017 world championships, which came during the year she took off after her triumph in Rio de Janeiro five years ago.
“Going into this meet I feel like there was a lot of pressure on me because I have been second to her (Biles) the whole season basically,” said Lee.
“So I knew that people were kind of counting on me to either get second or win the gold medal. I tried not to focus on that because I knew that I would get too nervous.”
Biles was in the arena as she watched and cheered up her teammates. Lee expressed her feeling after winning the gold medal.
“It just means a lot to me to have all of them here cheering for me,” said Lee.
Lee opened up about Biles not being on the flow but appreciated her presence in the Arena since she’s her inspiration
“It sucks that I can’t have Simone on the floor with me but just to even have her in the arena was very helpful because she is an inspiration to me that I look up to. Having her there helped me a lot.” Added Lee
She qualified for Tokyo 2020 Olympics after hitting all four routines and posted an uneven bars score of 15.300. She ended the night in second place behind Biles.
On the second night of competition she once again hit all four routines. Lee scored a 58.166 on day two, scoring higher than Biles’ 57.533. This was the third time in Biles’ senior career and first time since 2013 where someone posted a higher one-day all-around score.
However Lee’s two-day combined score was less than Biles’ and she finished the competition in second place, which automatically qualified her to the Olympic team alongside Biles. Also named to the team were Jordan Chiles and Grace McCallum.
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