What Is Suni Lee’s Net Worth?
The artistic gymnast Suni Lee, an American, is worth $5 million. Suni Lee won bronze in the uneven bars and the women’s artistic individual all-around title at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Suni has competed for the United States women’s national gymnastics team six times. She was a member of the squads that took home gold at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, and the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany. Lee participated in the 2021 season of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars,” where she and her partner Sasha Farber came in fifth. In that same year, Suni was listed as one of the world’s most influential individuals by “Time” magazine. In 2022, she received nominations for two ESPY Awards: U.S. Female Olympian and Female Athlete.
Early Life
On March 9, 2003, Sunisa Phabsomphou gave birth to Suni Lee in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Yeev Thoj, her mother, left Laos when she was a young girl and now works in healthcare. John Lee, Yeev’s long-time boyfriend, raised Suni since she was two years old, and Lee saw Yeev as her father. Lucky, Evionn, and Noah are Suni’s three half-siblings; Evionn has participated in regional artistic gymnastics competitions. Lee started gymnastics instruction at the Midwest Gymnastics Centre when she was six years old. The following year, she entered competitions and won the all-around title at a state gymnastics event in Minnesota. Suni made three level jumps at the age of eight, and at eleven she was eligible for the elite program. Punnarith Koy trained her till she was twelve years old.
Career
Lee participated in the Hopes division in 2015 and switched to the junior elite division in 2016. She participated in her first international competition, the Gymnix International Junior Cup, after joining the junior national team in 2017. There, she won a gold medal for the team event and a silver medal in the uneven bars competition. Suni declared in May 2017 that she intended to use her gymnastics scholarship to attend Auburn University in Alabama. She participated in the 2018 Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships, where she took home three silver medals in the vault, floor exercise, and balancing beam categories in addition to a gold in the team final.
An ankle ailment kept Lee out of the Pan American Junior Championships the following month. She won a gold medal in the balance beam competition and placed fifth overall in the 2018 U.S. Classic. At the 2018 U.S. National Championships, she took home a bronze medal in the all-around competition. At the 2019 City of Jesolo Trophy, Suni made her senior debut by winning gold medals in the uneven bars, floor, and all-around competitions as well as a bronze in the balance beam; In the team final, the U.S. also took home a gold medal.
In April 2019, Lee sustained an injury to her ankle, and then two months later, she experienced a hairline fracture in her left tibia. At the 2019 U.S. National Championships, Suni earned gold in the uneven bars event, silver in the all-around event, and bronze in the floor event. She also placed second in the balance beam and bars events at the 2019 American Classic and GK US Classic. She qualified for the national team following the 2019 U.S. National Championships, and at the US World Championship tryouts, she placed second in the all-around competition.
She took home silver in the floor event and bronze in the uneven bars event at the 2019 World Championships, while the United States took home gold in the team competition. After rehabilitating for a portion of 2020 from a broken foot bone and an injury to her Achilles tendon, Lee participated in the 2021 Winter Cup in February and took home a bronze in the balance beam competition and a gold in the uneven bars event. At the 2021 American Classic, Suni took home gold in both the uneven bars and balance beam competitions. Later that year, she was highlighted on the Peacock television series “Golden: The Journey of USA’s Elite Gymnasts.”
Lee earned a spot in the Olympic Trials by placing first in the uneven bars and balance beam events and second in the all-around competition after winning the uneven bars event and placing second in the all-around and balance beam events at the 2021 National Championships. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the 2020 Summer Olympics were postponed until July 2021. During that time, Suni won three medals: one in the uneven bars event, one in the gold all-around, and one in the team event. In recognition of her accomplishments, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz proclaimed July 30, 2021, as “Sunisa Lee Day.” Suni won the Asia Game Changer Award in October 2021 for “making Olympic history and competing with grace under pressure.” She started attending Auburn University in 2022. At the SEC Championships, she earned gold, silver, and bronze medals in the uneven bars, floor, and team events, respectively. At the NCAA Championship, she took home gold in the balance beam event and silver in the all-around competition.
Personal Life
Her father fell off a ladder in August 2019, just days before Suni competed in her first senior USA Gymnastics National Championship. The incident left him paralyzed from the waist down. Lee lost both her aunt and uncle in 2020 as a result of COVID-19. Regarding the tragedy, Suni remarked, “I pushed away the melancholy and the bad thoughts and just concentrated.” I feel like I might be tougher now as a result. Not at all, not even possibly. It has made me stronger.”
Lee said in November 2021 that while she and her companions were in Los Angeles for “Dancing with the Stars,” a group of persons in a car pepper-sprayed them and yelled racist epithets at them, telling them to “go back to where they came from.” “Pop Sugar” interviewed Lee about the upsetting event, and he said, “I was furious, but I had no power over them because they walked away.” Having the reputation that I did not do anything to them makes it difficult for me to do anything that would land me in trouble. I simply allowed it to occur.”
Early in 2022, Hmong-American community members made disparaging remarks about Suni’s relationship with USC Trojans football player Jaylin Smith because they did not like that she was seeing someone of a different race.
