A number of Asian Americans are representing the US in Gymnastics at the 2024 Paris Olympics. 2020 Olympic all-around Champion Sunisa Lee is returning. Stanford Gymnast Asher Hong is on the men’s Squad. Leanne Wong is a travelling alternate while 16 year old Tiana Sumanasekera is a non-travelling alternate.
There are some interesting backstories to these Asian American athletes. Sunisa Lee is back after a serious kidney problem that had her doctors thinking she might never compete again. This is Asher Hong first Olympics, and he was on Stanford’s NCAA championship team. We have already talked about Leanne Wong’s story, book, and side business in another post. This is her second time as a travelling alternate to an Olympic team. Tiana Sumanasekera is the only person of Sri Lankan descent to represent the US in gymnastics in international competitions.
You can find brief descriptions of the backgrounds of these gymnasts and others in this article from Time.
(photo credit: Mypurplelightsaber licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license)
