There’s an image from the 2024 Paris Olympics that may never be forgotten. On the left is a Black American, born in Ohio, raised in Texas, who was once in and out of foster care, but would go on to become the best gymnast in the history of the sport. On the right is an Asian American, a child of immigrants who came to the U.S. from Laos.
Both are smiling and waving while holding an American flag. In that moment, that stunning, beautiful photographed moment, Simone Biles, Olympic all-around gold medalist, and Suni Lee, bronze winner, are not just Americans, they represent something bigger. They represent the future.
They stand for a future where a Black woman can be president. Or an Asian woman can. Or both simultaneously. They represent love and hope, fierceness and kindness, decency and honor. They represent a future where women of color fight authoritarians and stereotypes. Where they lead the world. Where their inventions clean the oceans and cool the fire that is consuming the planet.
They are a future where they have kids. Or don’t. And no one asks questions about it. In this future they smile. Or don’t. They have choice. They have autonomy. They laugh, they dance, they create.
They have cats and everyone minds their business about it. In their future, Project 2025 is the nickname of the robot they invented. They are captain of the Enterprise, the aircraft carrier or the starship. Take your pick.
It is all there, in that photo. You can see it. You can see the timelines unfold and the future ripple forward from this moment on. A better future, led by them, and women who look like them. Women of color who refuse to be put in a box or stay silent in the face of ugliness. Maybe they are Black journalists insulted by a former president. Or maybe they are an Asian journalist insulted at a White House press briefing by that same former president. And maybe those women decide they are tired and will never take that crap again.
Maybe a child of color sees that photo and wants to become the next Simone Biles or Shirley Chisholm. Or Michelle Yeoh or Naomi Osaka.
That photo shows the possibilities. The endlessness of them.
“I really didn’t think that I would even get on podium, so it’s just like crazy that I was here and I did everything that I could,” Lee said after the competition.
“I went out there and I just told myself not to put any pressure on myself because I didn’t want to think about past Olympics or even trying to like, prove to anybody anything. Because I wanted to just prove to myself that I could do it because I did think that I could, but it’s taken a lot.”
She was there because of those possibilities.
These are ugly times we’re in. Things seem to vacillate between disastrous and more disastrous. We are inundated with the scary and the brutal. We see the monstrousness of mankind and we move on. Because stopping to think about it would be crippling. The Earth is getting smaller and scarier.
Black Americans are demonized. People are still using a racial slur to describe COVID-19. If you’re a person of color, and especially a woman of color, you are often targets of people who hate both of those parts of you.
It is bad … but then … then comes that photo. That moment. And you melt. Because you know they are the brightest of futures.
There’s an image that may never be forgotten. On the left is Biles, the best gymnast on this or any other planet. On the right is Lee, a special talent herself. They are smiling and waving and holding that flag. They aren’t just Americans. They are more. So much more.