tags: , , , , , AVEF, Blog

Olympians With Immigrant Roots Helped Lead Team USA To Big Wins in Paris

by Gabe Ortiz on

Share This:

The 2024 Summer Olympics closed on Sunday, and Team USA once again dominated the games, winning an astounding 126 medals, including 40 gold medals. Contributors to this incredible medal count included a number of athletes with immigrant roots. Gymnast Suni Lee, the daughter of a refugee born in Laos, won two bronze medals and a group gold medal, which combined with wins at the 2020 Summer Olympics makes her one the most decorated American gymnasts of all time. 

She received a champion’s welcome at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport on Sunday, where community members stood side-by-side with elected officials including Senator Amy Klobuchar and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter to greet the Olympian.

“On a balcony overlooking the ticketing lines, travelers stopped and pulled out their phones; some joined the welcoming party,” Minnesota’s Star Tribune reported. “Cheers echoed through the terminal when Lee appeared. Airport police and TSA agents joined her whooping fans, and cellphone cameras snapped.”

Some attendees were members of the Hmong community, who have previously expressed pride and jubilation not just over Lee’s accomplishments, but what’s represented to them. “Hmong people do not regularly see themselves in national media stories or celebrated as part of the national conversation,” Nancy Yang wrote in 2021. “Lee has elevated a community that has for decades felt invisible and forgotten by America.”

Immigrant roots ran deep in the Olympic games – and in the final medal tally. Basketball player Joel Embiid, himself an immigrant from Cameroon, won gold as part of the men’s basketball team. Soccer player Naomi Girma, the daughter of Ethiopian immigrants, won gold. It was the womens team’s first in more than a decade. Gymnasts Paul Juda and Asher Hong won bronze, marking the first time the men’s gymnastics team won an Olympic prize in over 15 years. Juda is the son of Polish immigrants and Hong is the son of Chinese immigrants. 20-year-old wrestler Amit Elor, a daughter of Israeli immigrants, “became the youngest U.S. wrestler, male or female, to ever win an Olympic gold medal,” Yahoo! Sports reported.

“An analysis by George Mason University’s Institute for Immigration Research found that 3.7% of athletes on this year’s US Olympic team are foreign-born, while more than 7% are children of immigrants or second-generation immigrants,” The Guardian reported. 

In his excellent Substack piece, columnist Paul Waldman wrote that it shouldn’t be all that surprising “that so many immigrants and children of immigrants become Olympians. The qualities necessary to achieve that level of athletic excellence — drive, focus, commitment, the ability to recover from setbacks, a strong work ethic — are often found in people willing to pick up from the place of their birth and make a fresh start in a new country.”

“When you see that Olympic team, which unlike the groups representing most other countries comes in all hues and from all backgrounds, what is your response?” he concluded. “I’ll tell you what comes to my mind: That is what America ought to be, right there. Look at what we show the world: all these different kinds of people who came from everywhere, and they all wear ‘USA’ on their shirts. That’s what makes me proud to be an American.” Congrats to all of Team USA – and job well done at the Paris games.

RELATED: USA Olympic Team’s Immigrant Roots Shine Bright: ‘Diversity and Embracing Other Cultures Is What Makes Us So Special’

Refugee Olympians Receive ‘One Of The Biggest Cheers Of The Evening’ at 2024 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony

’The Sun Is Always Going To Rise,’ Says Florida-Based Cuban Refugee Set to Compete in 2024 Summer Olympic Games