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After three weeks of competition crushing and medal winning alongside her teammates [3] in Tokyo, Suni Lee finally reunited with her family for the first time since making Olympic history [4]. On Thursday morning, the 18-year-old gymnast made an emotional appearance on the Today show in New York City with her parents, John Lee and Yeev Thoj, and siblings, Jonah and Shyenne, all of whom watched her win gold from thousands of miles away [5] in Minnesota among other members of the Hmong American community. Lee's family beamed with pride and smiled from ear to ear as she walked out onto set wearing a Team USA sweater and her hard-earned gold, silver, and bronze medals [6]. "You did great, awesome. You did it," her dad said while giving her a big hug.
"She got it, she brought it home."
Lee kicked off the joint interview by placing two of her medals around her parents' necks, to which her dad responded, "I never thought I would ever get one of these, and she did it. She got it, she brought it home." Wiping away tears, her mom added, "It's like happy tears. Just thinking of all the hard work that she has done in the past 12 years and every time she has a bad day and she comes home crying, and that kind of hurts me, and so to see her with the gold medal, it just makes me happy."
Lee also thanked her dad directly for supporting her gymnastics dreams, which all began when he built a wooden balance beam in their backyard. "I love that beam now," he joked. Watch the full clip below to watch Lee's family's sweet reunion and to catch throwback footage of the all-star athlete [8] on her homemade beam back in the day.