Minnesotan grabs the gold in Olympic debut

Minnesotan Sunisa (Suni) Lee brought home the gold in Olympic individual gymnastics.
Lee, an 18-year-old from St. Paul, had the entire country behind her bid to bring home the gold after Simone Biles withdrew from competition.
Lee grabbed the gold when she turned in a brilliant floor exercise to catapult past Russian Angelina Melnikova. Lee scored a 13.700 in her performance.
Newspapers and websites focused on the 18-year-old phenom, including the pressures she faced prior to the nationals when her father sustained injuries after falling off a ladder.
Think about it for just a moment: Her mother, Yeev Thoj and dad, John Lee fled Laos and the Vietnam War.
Suni attended South St. Paul Secondary and has been a member of the women’s national gymnastics team since 2017. (She was 14 when she became a part of the team.)
Suni made history when she was the first Hmong American to compete in the Olympics for the U.S. and certainly the first to win a gold medal.
It’s not often that a Minnesotan rises to the top of the international podium and claims gold.
Not only has the Lee family become citizens of our great nation, but also they have continued the tradition of excellence and pride that comes with being American.
NBC News: ...she struggled with the difficult past year during a rise in anti-Asian hate, wondering why “people hate on us for no reason.”
“It would be cool to show that we are more than what they say,” she said.
Why is it that ignorance drives prejudice? This young lady and her family are no different than our ancestors who came from Europe. In fact, the Hmong people living in the mountains of Laos and Cambodia during the Vietnam War era were folks who aided Americans soldiers and airmen who would have been captured or killed by the Viet Cong.
Hmong people are a humble people, who have integrated into our state population and have contributed to our society.
Now, they have been spotlighted by one of our own on the world stage — the Olympics.
Suni has shown all of us that she is an American hero.