Layden: Let This Moment Belong to Suni Lee, Apotheosis of the American Dream

The overlooked power of the Olympic Games is their irresistible length. They are but 16 days long, and given the structure of anticipatory modern media, are previewed daily for four years – this time, for five – and then gone in a whisper. It is often said, usually by sports journalists, that no event on earth is more over than when the Olympic Games are over, and we emerge from the bubbles (a term now possessed of multiple meanings) in which we lived for the two weeks. Monday morning arrives and it is a new world, the Olympics like an airport swiftly shrinking from view as we climb into the sky and rush forward to another place, just a stamp on our passport or a logo on the souvenirs in our overstuffed checked bag.