When Suni Lee was younger, her dad couldn't afford to buy her a balance beam. So he built her one.
CBSN
Suni Lee, an 18-year-old Team USA gymnast from Minnesota, just took home the gold medal for the women's gymnastics all-around at the Tokyo Olympics. She got there with hard work, perseverance and support from her family – especially her dad, John.
Lee is the first Hmong-American Olympian, with both parents immigrating to the U.S. from Laos. She was born Sunisa Phabsomphou to her mother, Yeev. When she was 2 years old, Yeev met John Lee, a recently divorced dad with two children, and began dating him, according to an ESPN interview with the family. The pair never married, but Suni considers John her dad – even changing her last name to Lee.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.