Yeev Thoj is the mom of U.S. Olympic gymnast Suni Lee.
Thoj expressed pride in her daughter in an interview with “The Today Show.” She also opened up about what hurts her about her daughter’s gymnastics hopes.
“Just thinking of all the hard work that she has done in the past four 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,” she said on “The Today Show.” Thoj made the comments after Lee won a gold all-around medal in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
According to ABC News, Thoj and her partner John Lee, are “Hmong immigrants from Laos.”
They are raising a blended family, according to an extensive ESPN profile on Suni Lee’s family.
Suni Lee helped Team USA bring home the gold in the women’s gymnastics team competition in Paris. She is competing on August 1 in the individual all-around competition, along with fellow team member Simone Biles, according to USA Gymnastics.
Suni Lee’s Mom Met John Lee When Her Daughter Was 2 Years Old, Reports Say
According to ESPN, Thoj had already given birth to Suni, then 2 years old, when she met the recently divorced John Lee, who had two kids, Jonah and Shyenne with another woman. They went on to have three more kids together named Evionn, Lucky, and Noah, ESPN reported.
According to ESPN, Thoj and John Lee never married legally, and he is technically Suni Lee’s stepdad. However, Suni Lee made the decision to take his last name, ESPN reported.
“She wanted his last name,” Thoj told ESPN.
The family has faced struggles.
According to the ESPN profile of Lee’s family, her dad is in a wheelchair due to a “fall from a ladder in 2019” that “left him paralyzed from the chest down and unable to attend his daughter’s meets.”
GettySuni Lee.
MPR News explained that Lee started taking gymnastics lessons at age six, and her parents said she “used to tumble around the house and the backyard — everywhere.”
“People kept asking us, ‘Is she in gymnastics?'” Thoj said to MPR News.
Yeev Thoj Came to the U.S. at Age 12 With Her Mother & Sister, Reports Say
GettyJohn Lee (C), father of Sunisa Lee of Team United States, celebrates after she won gold in the Women’s All-Around Gymnastics Final on day six of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at a watch party on July 29, 2021, in Oakdale, Minnesota.
According to the ESPN profile, Thoj is “from a large Hmong family” and came to St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1987 from Laos at age 12 with her mother and sister.
“We went to a grocery store, and I thought it was magic. Vanilla ice cream in a box. Starburst. And girls wore jeans instead of skirts. I was so excited to wear jeans,” she told ESPN.
According to ESPN, Thoj named her daughter Sunisa “after her favorite Thai soap opera actress and gave her a Hmong middle name.” She was an athlete in high school and encouraged Suni Lee to become involved in sports even though “it wasn’t part of our culture,” ESPN quoted the mom as saying.
A friend “saw Suni doing somersaults at the park and suggested Yeev take her to a gymnastics class for toddlers,” ESPN reported.
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Suni Lee’s Mom Explained What ‘Hurts’ Her About Her Daughter’s Olympic Career