The 2024 Paris Olympic Games are just around the corner, and 20-year-old gymnast Leanne Wong will be joining Team USA as an alternate. Her strategy going into the Games? To “have fun,” she tells ELLE. “It’s important that we enjoy what we do.”
Wong’s career in the sport started when she was just five years old. And since then, she’s earned an impressive number of achievements, like competing at three World Championships—including in 2022 and 2023, when the U.S. took home gold medals. At the 2021 World Championships, Wong was the all-around silver medalist, and earned bronze on floor. And Paris isn’t her first Olympics, Wong qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as an alternate, but was forced to quarantine after her roommate tested positive for COVID.
As well as being a world-renowned gymnast, she is also an entrepreneur. Wong is the CEO and founder of her business, Leanne Wong Bowtique. In 2021, she launched the company, which sells handmade bows and signature leotards. As if that wasn’t enough, Wong is also a pre-med student athlete at the University of Florida. Some of her other hobbies include cooking, playing the piano, shopping, and biking.
Now, Wong is set to head to Paris with Team USA as an alternate again. In the final weeks before the Games, she spoke with ELLE about her journey to the Olympics.
Starting out in ice skating
Yes, when I was four years old. My dad really loved Michelle Kwan and almost named me after her. So, I started in ice skating, but it was not fun at all. I did not like falling on the hard ice. I talk about how I coped with that a book that I just released called My Journey: Trust the Process. It’s about my journey to reach the highest level in gymnastics and how I got there through the highs and lows. But that’s where it all started, in ice skating.
Leanne Wong at the 50th FIG Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
The origins of Bowtique
Bows never used to be a thing in gymnastics. It was more ribbons, but I started wearing my bow every day, and I was like, ‘Why don’t I make all different colors?’ My teammates and people started asking about them, and I became known as the bow girl. I have bows on everything—on my nails, on my shoes. I make apparel with my bows, so I’m really grateful to see where this business has gone and to see how many little girls will be wearing my bows. It’s so cool being able to inspire them, and to be a role model for them when I was once that little girl looking up to athletes.
Her gymnastics hero
I would say Simone Biles, because her level of difficulty is incredible, and seeing her be able to go to Olympics and earn so many world medals is just so inspiring. I was on the team with her at the last World Championships for the first time, and that was really cool.
Her favorite gymnastics move
I would say the Shaposh half on bars, because it was a really hard skill for me to learn. It feels like you’re flying from the low bar to the high bar. I remember the day I learned the skill. It was actually me and a few of my teammates who were all working on the skill, but we would always do it with a spot. It’s just different when you’re doing it with a spot than by yourself. But one day the coach was gone, so I was like, ‘Guys, we’re going to do this all by ourselves,’ and we all got it that day.
Wong competing at the 2024 Core Hydration Gymnastics Classic.
The move she’d like named after her
I’ve always dreamed of completing a quad twist on floor, but it takes so much strength. That would be a dream skill.
Her dream Olympic team
Obviously Simone Biles. Probably Shawn Johnson East, Nastia Liukin, Jordyn Wieber. I don’t know, there’s so many. Oh! Aly Raisman.
The best motivational advice she’s gotten
Honestly, just in practice, doing what I need to be able to have fun on the competition floor. That’s what I’ve really learned at college. You can compete in gymnastics and have fun. It doesn’t have to be super serious; it’s just gymnastics.
Hezly Rivera, Joscelyn Roberson, Suni Lee, Simone Biles, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles, and Wong after qualifying for the 2024 Olympic team.
What the sport of gymnastics can improve upon
It’s already taken so many steps in the right direction. It’s been a lot more fun to compete, even in the elite world, because there have been changes, and I feel like gymnastics leaders do want us to have fun and enjoy the sport and not make it so much of a life-or-death situation. We are people, and it’s important that we enjoy what we do.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Additional reporting by Claire Stern Milch.
Bri is the editorial and social media assistant at ELLE.com. Before joining the team at ELLE, she worked as the editorial assistant for Seventeen.com and Cosmopolitan.com where she covered all things celebrity news and pop culture. You can probably find her sipping an oatmilk iced chai while searching for the best new makeup products or thrifting her entire wardrobe.