By Rory Carroll
PARIS (Reuters) - Gymnastics, a sport long associated in the U.S. with white athletes, has seen a dramatic shift in recent years with the likes of Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Asher Hong and Frederick Richard representing its changing face at the Paris Olympics.
The dominant U.S. women's team is the most racially diverse in history, with four of its five members having Black, Asian or Hispanic backgrounds while the bronze-winning men's team is the most diverse since 2012, according to USA Gymnastics.
Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history who is competing in her third Games, said the sport has come a long way since she fell in love with it as a six-year-old girl living in Texas.
"I know what it's like being the only Black girl on the team and not having a role model," she said in her recently released Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) documentary.
"Thankfully we had Betty Okino, Dominique Dawes and Gabby Douglas, but that wasn't until later."
Dawes and Okino overcame racial prejudice to become the first two Black women to compete on the U.S. team at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, where they won bronze in the team event.
Then in London in 2012, Douglas became the first Black woman of any nationality to win the coveted individual all-around gold medal in a breakthrough that had a lasting impact on Biles.
"It was such an exciting time for everyone who looked like us," Biles said.
At her Olympic debut in Tokyo, then 18-year-old Lee made history as the first Asian American to win the all-around title, which she will look to defend on Thursday in Paris.
Frederick Richard on Monday became the first Black American man to medal at the Olympics since Jair Lynch in 1996, and the popular 20-year-old is poised to feature prominently on the U.S. team for years to come.
Richard told reporters he was thrilled to see the sport being opened up to people of all backgrounds.
"Now we get to come together and show that it's a good thing for a sport," he said.
"It takes us one level higher."
Richard's teammate Asher Hong, who is of Chinese descent, said today's U.S. gymnastics teams better reflect the true makeup of the United States.
"We're called the melting pot after all," Hong said.
"I think it's great that we can all be so different but so cohesive."