Opinion: Suni Lee completes her Olympic medal set but bronze performance leaves a hole

TOKYO — An Olympic medal, any Olympic medal, is an incredible achievement, and Suni Lee now has three of them. One of each color, no less.

But uneven bars are her event. Few in the world are better on it, and it’s become her trademark. To know she made mistakes, to feel as if she did less than her best, is a crushing disappointment, and not even her new bronze medal can completely erase that sting.

“I think I’m going to want to come back (for Paris) anyway, just to redeem myself,” Lee said Sunday. “Because this is not how I wanted to get my bars medal.”

The women’s all-around title is one of the glamour prizes of the entire Olympic Games, and whoever wins it will see her life change overnight. You immediately become a household name. Every news media outlet in America wants time with you, your family, the family that lived across the street when you were 6. The celebrities you were following not only know who you are, they’re following you back.