The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Lee adds bronze on uneven bars
TOKYO >> Sunisa Lee came to Japan to win a gold medal. And she did. Just not the one she really, really wanted.
The 18-year-old from Minnesota is a revelation on uneven bars, where her routines are an intricate series of connections and releases completed with so much ease it looks like she’s making it all up on the fly.
Only she isn’t. Her mastery is the result of years of hard work. She’s one of the best in the world on it, and she showed it during the all-around final, where her electric set helped her edge Rebeca Andrade of Brazil and become the fifth straight American woman to claim the Olympic title.
Three days and a crush of fame later, she wasn’t quite right. Admitting she’d become distracted by the attention surrounding her triumph, connections that typically come so easily were labored during the Aug. 1 event finals, if they came at all. The result was a bronze-medal finish that left her disappointed.
Yes, the all-around title is great. She’ll carry it with her for the rest of her life. But the bars are her jam. Only her long-anticipated showdown with Belgium star Nina Derwael never materialized. Leading off while wearing a dazzling crystal-laden blue leotard in the eight-woman final, Lee knew in the middle of her routine it wasn’t going to be good enough to top the podium long before her 14.500 flashed across the scoreboard.
“Bars is something I really cherish,” Lee said while wearing shoes borrowed from American teammate
Jade Carey because she forgot the ones that come with the U.S. uniform back at the hotel. “So when I mess it up, it really sucks.”
Even if Lee’s definition of “mess it up” is different than most others. The bronze gave her a full rainbow of Olympic bling to go
with the all-around gold and the silver she claimed in the team competition.
It’s impressive by any stretch. It’s also not quite what she came here for.
“It’s really cool,” Lee said. “I just wish the bronze medal was a (balance) beam medal, not bars.”