Leung's Return to Gymnastics is Already Leaving a Legacy

By Joey Johnston

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She knows what it feels like to be on the medal stand, hand over her heart, eyes fixed on the flag, tears welling, as the Star-Spangled Banner plays over the loudspeaker. She has worked herself to exhaustion in the gym. She has won. She has lost. She has been seriously injured and wondered if she was finished as a competitive athlete.

When the OOFOS U.S Gymnastics Championships arrive at Tampa’s Amalie Arena on Aug. 18-21, she will be everywhere at once, doing business, presiding over policy decisions, mixing and mingling with partners, sponsors, event officials, politicians and broadcasters. But when that moment comes, as it always does, in a packed arena of fans who oooh and aaah over moves that don’t seem humanly possible, her breath will be taken away, too.

USA Gymnastics president and CEO Li Li Leung, a 5-foot-tall dynamo focused on ushering her sport into a new era of prosperity, never wants to forget why she was attracted to gymnastics in the first place. It’s filled with stories of competition, triumph and redemption. It’s awe-inspiring and spine-tingling at the same time. Most of all, it’s fun.

“Gymnastics has honestly taught me so many different things and skill sets and I can truly say I am who I am today because of the sport,’’ Leung said. “When you train in gymnastics — and it sounds cliche, but it’s true — you learn discipline, work ethic and overcoming adversity. It appears to be an individual sport, but you’re training with teammates all the time, so you learn how to work with people. Every day of my life, I apply the lessons I learned through gymnastics.’’

Leung, a three-time Academic All-American competitor and a member of four Big Ten Conference champion teams a the University of Michigan, was only peripherally involved with gymnastics through most of her professional career. She lived in China and London, working for a global sports management firm, and also served as a vice president for the National Basketball Association, where she negotiated and managed partner relationships around the world.

When USAG needed a new leader in 2019, Leung agreed to meet with a headhunter, but only in an advisory capacity. When the focus turned to her, Leung still didn’t believe she would be selected. When the dust settled, though, USAG put its trust in Leung, who came full circle and returned to her roots. Growing up in New Jersey, Leung and her identical twin sister May May (3 minutes younger) mimicked the moves of friends who were enrolled in gymnastics classes.

“We were quite active as kids, so our parents would walk into the kitchen and we’d be hanging from the counters or flipping off the couches at home,’’ Leung said. “So they thought, ‘Yeah, it’s probably better if they were in the classes, too.’ Our friends quit after a period of time, but we kept going. We loved it.’’

Li Li and May May (who received her doctorate and is now an associate professor in public health and nutrition at New York’s Hunter College) became gymnastics shining stars and competed together at Michigan. After graduation, they went in different directions, although they never stopped caring about the world of gymnastics.

Now Leung has the first-hand chance to help the sport advance.

“We are all bought into her great vision of growing the sport of gymnastics in the United States and helping our programs become the best in the world,’’ said USAG vice president Annie Heffernon, who oversees the women’s programs. “She is a busy, busy woman and she keeps us all busy. Where she’s going is where we all want to go. She does a great job and I think she is very inspirational.’’

“I’ve never seen anybody like her,’’ said USAG vice president Jason Woodnick, who oversees the men’s programs. “She has this amazing ability to connect with so many different groups of people — and she listens to them all. I just think she’s Superwoman. She’s very driven to make this sport better and learn from past mistakes. I have nothing but the highest praise for the pace she is setting for all of us.’’

It’s similar to the drive she displayed as a gymnast, a go-go-go spirit that saw her and her sister putting in 35 hours a week for training. There were volumes of memorable moments with the most prominent occurring at the Junior Pan-Am Games, when Leung’s American squad upset the heavily favored Team Canada, an accomplishment that still gives her chills.

After Leung’s freshman season at Michigan, where she most enjoyed competing in floor exercise, she suffered a complete tear of her Achilles tendon. She was devastated to miss so much gym time. While recovering from her medical procedure, the surgeon told her there was a chance she might never walk normally again.

“I don’t know if he was being overly dramatic, and I was like, ‘Maybe this is more serious than I thought,’ but what he said drove me to work that much harder,’’ Leung said. “I was back in the gym in nine months and tumbling by then as well.

“I have such great memories. Do I miss being out there these days? Yes, at times. Your mind still knows what it feels like to perform at the highest level. But when you try to do something, there’s a disconnect between the mind and body. When I watch high-level gymnastics, there’s always a piece of me that wants to be out there in a physical manner. When you perform at high levels, it becomes part of your DNA. It never leaves.’’

Maybe that’s a metaphor for Leung’s return to gymnastics. She spent a quarter-century working around the world in different sports ventures. Now she’s back — with a chance to make long-lasting contributions.

“Whether it’s the Olympics or the U.S. Championships in Tampa, it’s always an opportunity to put our sport out there, to grow to higher levels and be the absolute best we can be,’’ Leung said. “It’s a critical time right now and we want to leave a meaningful legacy.’’