I’ve been mulling over this topic for a couple of days now, trying to let emotion fade and let logic or some other sensibility take over. That’s probably not going to happen so I need to write while this is still somewhat timely.
I’m going to apologize in advance for this piece being all over the place because that’s where my thoughts are. I obviously don’t have a snazzy lede or witty way of bringing you in so I’m just going to get to it.
I’m sick and tired of this stupid philosophy about winning and losing and a “what if” attitude about athletic competition at the Olympic Games.
Let’s remember that all athletes at the Olympics are big fish. They are all the cream of the crop, the bee’s knees, the best of the best, the absolute pick of the litter. While there is definitely a list of favorites going into any competition — thanks to economy, technology, cultural preferences and traditions and, let’s face it, privilege — all Olympic athletes are the very best their nations have to offer. They have all risen to a level of accomplishment few of us ever experience in anything.
The Olympics are the athletic equivalent of 1,600 high school valedictorians coming together to form the freshman class at Harvard. One of those brainiacs will finish last in the graduating class.
While I am a nearly life-long opponent of participation awards, every single Olympic athlete deserves recognition for committing a lifetime to sport; to sacrificing many “normal” activities en route to mastering their chosen sport and to representing their countries with pride. Being named to a national Olympic team is a victory.
So this business about a silver medal winner being asked if she won a silver medal or lost a gold medal just makes me burn.
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I was so proud of Eileen Gu (an American-born skier who chooses to compete for her mother’s home country of China) when she put a journalist in his place I could have hugged her.
After Gu won her second silver medal in freestyle skiing at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, John Weaver of Agence France-Presse asked her if she thought she gained two silvers or lost two golds.
Her immediate response was rather loud and incredulous laughter. And then she used her words.
“I am the most decorated female free skier in history,” she told Weaver. “I think that’s an answer in and of itself.”
“How do I say this,” she continued. “Winning a medal at the Olympics is a life-changing experience for every athlete. Doing it five times is exponentially harder because every medal is harder for me but everybody else’s expectations rise.”
And she had one final thought for the journalist: “And so the two medals lost situation, to be quite frank with you, I think is a kind of ridiculous perspective to have.”
Can you possibly imagine asking an Olympic athlete if they were sorry they had just won a silver medal (hockey players aside)? And before you answer, please refer to my above comments about these folks being the big fish, the cream of the crop.
Gu finished second in the WORLD at what is arguably the greatest, most prestigious, most coveted athletic gathering of them all, and a journalist asked her that stupid question. I was embarrassed for Weaver and so damn proud of Gu I could have cried.
“You don’t win silver, you lose gold” was the Nike message, emblazoned on billboards strategically placed around Olympic Stadium, the athletes’ village and other high-traffic areas, that greeted athletes and spectators alike.
"Second place is the first loser," read another billboard.
I can remember being just as upset at those messages then as I am now.
Now, technically, anyone who doesn’t finish first in a race is a loser. Only first place wins any contest. I understand that. But there are three spots on the medal podium and every athlete wants to make that podium. Trust me that the silver medalist isn’t thinking, “what a big loser I am” as he or she watches their nation’s flag being lifted in the air, in front of millions of people across the globe.
And if you want to bash the bronze medalist, or question the value of a third-place finish, just ask the fourth-place finisher what they think of that bronze medal.
While I’m going to compare apples and oranges here, this debate brought back some childhood memories. When I was a kid, there was a network of summer playgrounds sponsored by the Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks. Toward the end of each season, all the playgrounds gathered for a track and field meet held at Kenwood High School.
Each playground held home site competitions to pick the kids who would compete at the meet. There were traditional events like footraces, broad jump, running long jump and baseball and softball throwing.
For several summers, I earned the spot in softball throw for my age group. My first time, I came in second, winning a red ribbon and valuable points for Country Ridge, my home playground (at the end of the day, trophies were awarded to the top three playgrounds based upon those accumulated points).
The girl who beat me was good. We got three attempts and every time I threw a little farther, so did she. She beat me three summers in a row. As we recognized each other each summer, we began to joke about already knowing we'd finish 1-2, with the only question being our final distances. I improved each year but so did she. If I threw 97 feet, she threw 99.
Around the fourth summer or so, she wasn’t there. She might have been sick, maybe she moved, maybe she lost interest and just gave it up. I never knew. I won the event that year and received a blue ribbon and even more points for Country Ridge. But I knew that, had she been there, I probably would have taken home another red ribbon. Because of that sense of competition, that series of red ribbons meant more to me than that blue one ever did.
Athletes cherish competition. They don’t want anything handed to them. They train, they dedicate themselves, they perfect their craft, they create new, bold and dangerous moves, they strive to reach heights never before reached and they give it their all. Some days, that results in a gold medal. On other days, it results in an eighth-place finish or worse, a career-ending injury.
At these recently concluded Winter Olympics, I saw joy and pride and excitement on all three levels of the medal podium, with the exception of both men’s and women’s ice hockey.
Trust me that those second- and third-place finishers were thrilled to climb up on that podium, thrilled to bend down and have their necks draped with a coveted Olympic medal, thrilled to watch their flags hoisted high above the crowd and thrilled to spot their proud friends and family members in the stands.
Trust me that they were not lamenting losing a gold medal.
We need to do better.
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