By Jason Cruz
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Welcome to another edition of The Layup Drill. This time, we take a look at the Olympics in Paris, France.
Suni Lee returns
Sunisa Lee, of United States, competes on the vault during a women’s artistic gymnastics qualification round at Bercy Arena at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 28, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Suni Lee earned three medals in women’s gymnastics at the Paris Olympics. It was a comeback for Lee who was diagnosed with two kidney diseases, one of which is incurable that she has not disclosed. The ailment caused her body to swell and cause constant nausea. She took a six-month hiatus and she made the decision to retire from college gymnastics. Lee returned to training last year and was part of the women’s team to win the all-around gold.
Lee also gave a stellar floor routine in the individual competition, which was good enough to secure an individual Bronze medal. She was the returning, defending Olympic champion from Tokyo, but the gold medal was secured by teammate Simon Biles this time around. Both made history as they are the first U.S. gymnasts ever to win a medal more than once in the all-around competition.
Lee also grabbed the Bronze medal in the uneven bars in the individual competition to once again make it on the podium.
Kiefer fences to gold
Lee Kiefer, right, reacts as she competes with Canada’s Yunjia Zhang in the women’s team foil semifinal match during the 2024 Summer Olympics on Aug. 1, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
30-year-old Lee Kiefer earned two gold medals with her performances in women’s foil and women’s team foil. Kiefer’s mother, Teresa, was born in the Philippines and is a psychiatrist. She immigrated to the U.S. when she was young. Her father, Steve, is a neurosurgeon and once was captain of the Duke University fencing team.
Kiefer will follow in her father’s footsteps as she is a medical student at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame, where she was on the fencing team. Her sister also was a fencer for Harvard. She is now a doctor.
Kiefer is married to fellow fencer Gerek Meinhardt. His mother is of Taiwanese descent.
Weintraub is golden in team foil
United States’ fencer Lee Kiefer, Lauren Scruggs, Jaqueline Dubrovich and Maia mei Weintraub celebrate on the podium after winning the gold medal of the women’s team foil final match competition during the 2024 Summer Olympics on Aug. 1, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
In addition to Kiefer securing gold in Paris, Maia mei Weintraub secured her gold medal as part of Team USA. The 21-year-old Weintraub is part Singaporean and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is currently on the Fencing team at Princeton University. It was her first Olympic medal. She received a gold medal earlier this year at the Pan American Championships.
Torri Huske wins three medals in pool
Torri Huske reacts after winning the women’s 100-meter butterfly final at the 2024 Summer Olympics on July 28, 2024 in Nanterre, France. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Chinese American Torri Huske won a gold medal in the 100-meter butterfly in the pool in Paris. She also earned the silver medal in the 100-meter freestyle final from the outside in Lane 1. She also earned a silver in the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay.
Huske eked out the gold medal from fellow American Gretchen Walsh by four-hundredths of a second. Huske pulled the silver-medalist Walsh up onto the gold medalist podium when they played the Star-Spangled Banner during the medal ceremony so they could share the moment together. The gold redeems her missing out on an individual Olympic medal in Tokyo by one-hundredths of a second. She did earn a silver in Tokyo as part of the 4×100 medley relay.
The 21-year-old attends Stanford and swims for the Cardinal.
Hong wins Bronze in Men’s Gymnastics
Team USA from left: Brody Malone, Asher Hong, Fred Richard, Paul Juda and Stephen Nedoroscik, of United States, celebrate their bronze medal during the men’s artistic gymnastics team finals round at Bercy Arena at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Asher Hong helped the U.S. Men’s Gymnastics team get the Bronze medal in team gymnastics. It was the first medal by the men’s team since the 2008 Olympics. Hong, who was the NCAA champion in the vault for Stanford, delivered a flawless vault in team competition to help Team USA place 3rd overall.
A native of Plano, Texas, the 20-year-old has two brothers who are gymnasts.
Alex Yee squeaks by to win gold in triathlon
Great Britain’s Alex Yee earned a gold medal in the men’s triathlon with a finish for the ages. Yee won the silver medal in the Tokyo Olympics and looked to get another in Paris. However, Yee, who was near exhaustion from the race, throttled up one more push at the leader, longtime rival Hayden Wilde. He passed Wilde with 300 meters left in the run and surged for the gold medal.
The men’s and women’s triathlon was up in the air in Paris as the Seine River, in which the athletes would swim, was determined to be of poor water quality. However, a message to the athletes at 4:00 a.m. the next day told them the water was fine to race.
Yee’s father is of Chinese ancestry and born in Mozambique. His mother is from England.
Zheng Qinwen wins tennis gold
Chinese women’s tennis player, Zheng Qinwen, stunned the world by winning the women’s single gold medal in Paris. The 21-year-old became the first Asian player to win the gold medal in tennis.
Zheng defeated Donna Vekic of Croatia to put on a stamp of a remarkable run through the tournament for the gold.
Growing up in Shihan, China, Zheng was influenced by her father to train in tennis at a young age. At age 7, her father brought her to train with a coach in Wuhan, China. She was left to train in tennis full-time alone 8 hours away from her home.
Carlos Yulo
The gymnast from the Philippines became the first male gymnast from the country to earn gold at the Olympics. Yulo won gold in the floor exercise and vault disciplines. Yulo’s achievement made him the only athlete from the Philippines to ever win two gold medals at an Olympics.
The 24-year-old became just the second athlete to earn gold as weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz earned a gold medal in Tokyo.
Jason can be reached at newstips@nwasianweekly.com.