SAN JUAN, P.R. — Before she played in her last tennis tournament, Mónica Puig was pretty much like anyone else at San Juan International Airport.
Her grandparents would drop her off curbside and she would wait at the gate area flipping though her phone just like anyone else, save for the occasional moments when someone recognized her and asked for a photo.
But after her last tournament, at the Rio Olympics, no trip to Puerto Rico will be the same.
When she landed at the airport this week, carrying the first Olympic gold medal in Puerto Rico’s history, she was met by thousands of cheering fans, a retinue of three beefy security guards and an escort of several police cars and motorcycles with lights flashing.