AIBU to think that an olympic silver medal is pretty damn impressive?

[CaptSkippy]

So, every day I see these athletes winning medals. Sometimes it's gold and sometimes it's silver or bronze. I find each of these accomplishments really impressive.

Yet, the winner of a silver medal has just minutes later to "explain themselves" in front of a camera as to why it's not gold. You'll frequently hear phrases like "... and that's where I messed up."
And I am thinking: You messed up? You got silver, not last place.

Same thing with football matches. Out of all the teams that make it to the final, it's like all the previous matches didn't even happen if they don't win.

Am I missing something? Is silver only ever a "consolation price"? Or are we too hard on athletes who are in my opinion already impressive when they qualify for the olympics?

I don't think it's the medal colour as such but the expectation - or rather what you can do.

If you swim slower than your best, row slower than your best, miss shots on target you can get etc then you'll be disappointed naturally. Athletes don't train to go and perform below par - they aim to be the best they can be.

For some that'll be gold medal.

For others it won't. Hence why the British gymnastic females were delighted. On paper and on previous performance they weren't expected to get a medal. So bronze was an achievement.

These athletes devote 4 years to each Olympic cycle to peak at the right time.

It's no different to other life experiences - for example spending 3 years at uni and then not getting the degree level you are expecting because you don't perform well in an exam.

But no, journalists shouldn't be using the words "only".

And I hate attitudes from people like Peirs Morgan too. The man toddler who had a tantrum and stormed off his job critiques people who stick at their sport when things are tough and get a silver Olympic medal.

If you’re at Olympic level, you wouldn’t settle for second - that’s why they’re disappointed but that’s also why they’re where they are I.e top of their profession. They’re competitive!

So yes, I understand what you mean OP but in that moment, of course they’re gutted to not get gold.

I think expectations matter here. In the gymnastics the GB women’s team won a bronze medal that I don’t think any of them (or anyone else fir that matter) thought they would get so they were delighted. Whereas in the men’s individual all around, Nikita Nagornyy who was a favourite going in also won a bronze medal and he said he felt a bit ashamed as he knew he should have done better. I think looking back and with hindsight it’s easier to be philosophical about it, but right in the moment is when people will be most emotional about it.

I knew a paralympian who was left with massive mental health issues as a result of this mentality. That by getting silver she’d let herself and everyone else down, it impacted on lots of areas of her life years later. Almost destroyed her.

It’s tragic, I get the sense that training methods are being reconsidered now because of the long term damaging effects of them

@GrealishHairband

Professional athletes of whatever discipline go out to win and be the best. So while silver is a huge achievement, in their eyes it might be seen as falling short of the mark as they want to win.

I voted YABU for this exact reason. I agree Silver is amazing but by their own standards it’s just bit quite good enough. Sometimes silver or bronze medals or even gold come completely out of the blue though when the athletes didn’t expect to achieve it so that’s different.

And this is why we don’t win as many medals or win the football; we love coming second

* Imagine if you interviewed for a job at work and you didn't get it but you got offered a lower level job which was still a promotion but not the money or level you were hoping for.*

^This

Literally nobody starts a race or event aiming for silver.

This doesn’t reflect my experience at all. The athletes I know (mostly individual track and field events) are intensely focused on their own personal bests, season’s best, how they competed in relation to their main competitors at an event, improvement at some technical aspect of the discipline, effect of an event on their career, sponsors etc.

I know a swimmer who is at the Olympics and didn’t come through the heats for the final of her first event, but is genuinely absolutely thrilled to have made a personal best, set a new national record and progressed up the world rankings — she regards it as a success, and is feeling confident about her other two races.

Yeah, I guess I can understand an athlete being dissapointed coming in second if they thought they had a good chance at first.

The main problem I have with other people sneering at silver and demanding an explanation for it.

I hope that one day one of the athletes will tell them they are overjoyed they won silver and are proud of their achievement.

I was a bit gobsmacked at all the messing up re the Euros. I'm like we got to a final, we beat other teams convincingly, we actually played very well at points. I've not seen this in my entire life I think it should be celebrated.

@Demilunary

This doesn’t reflect my experience at all. The athletes I know (mostly individual track and field events) are intensely focused on their own personal bests, season’s best, how they competed in relation to their main competitors at an event, improvement at some technical aspect of the discipline, effect of an event on their career, sponsors etc.

I know a swimmer who is at the Olympics and didn’t come through the heats for the final of her first event, but is genuinely absolutely thrilled to have made a personal best, set a new national record and progressed up the world rankings — she regards it as a success, and is feeling confident about her other two races.

But that's not the same. She did the best she has ever done and therefore is delighted.

If you know you could have done better and have done in the past it's natural to be disappointed.

To be the top of your field you have to give up everything else. You miss out on so much to become the best, I read about Michael Phelps not having a day off for five years, including thanksgiving and Christmas. I would be delighted with a silver, but that attitude is why I'm not a sporting great

Even representing your country in the Olympics is impressive enough.

The main problem I have with other people sneering at silver and demanding an explanation for it.

I haven't seen this. The gymnasts and the equestrian woman were positively giddy with their bronze medals and the interviewer with them.

In a knockout I get the disappointment at losing the final because silver was the minimum you went in with. But with a race type event it's not logical. There are a whole bunch of you, one is going to win. On average you have a fairly low chance of getting a medal but that's still not good enough? For most events there isn't an obvious winner up front so why this weird sort of entitlement/pressure? Obviously there are certain people who we expect to win but on the whole races are reasonably open or there would be no suspense.
If the only thing good enough is gold that a lot of people you are labeling as failures.

YA so obviously BU it's difficult not to laugh. Second place is the first loser, it's a failure. You don't win silver, you lose gold. If second or third is OK, where do you draw the line and why? I mean I could probably by in the world's top five billion 100m sprinters if I put my mind to it. If five billionth is unimpressive and 3rd is, where's the cut-off and why?

If winning isn't what counts why give out medals at all? You don't even need to run the race, just let all the entrants take a "victory" lap basking in the adulation of the crowd and be done with it.

Sorry, but a silver medal just means you failed.

@Andante57

Even representing your country in the Olympics is impressive enough.

I agree with this. I was watching the rowing yesterday and the commentary team said something like “will they be able to hold onto a medal or will the last five years have been for nothing?”

Reaching an Olympic final is a massive achievement, and while athletes might be personally disappointed, I don’t think it’s for anyone else to say that representing your country at the Olympic Games is nothing.

Years ago I watched a programme about happiness and the consensus is that a lot of it is about meeting or beating expectations. The example they used was the Sydney Olympics when Steve Backley expected to win gold in the javelin but won silver and was devastated whereas Kelly Holmes was just happy to get to the final of her event and was absolutely thrilled with her bronze.

@ChainJane

YA so obviously BU it's difficult not to laugh. Second place is the first loser, it's a failure. You don't win silver, you lose gold. If second or third is OK, where do you draw the line and why? I mean I could probably by in the world's top five billion 100m sprinters if I put my mind to it. If five billionth is unimpressive and 3rd is, where's the cut-off and why?

If winning isn't what counts why give out medals at all? You don't even need to run the race, just let all the entrants take a "victory" lap basking in the adulation of the crowd and be done with it.

Sorry, but a silver medal just means you failed.

And this attitude is precisely why silver medalists particularly are more prone to having mental health issues.

@ChainJane

YA so obviously BU it's difficult not to laugh. Second place is the first loser, it's a failure. You don't win silver, you lose gold. If second or third is OK, where do you draw the line and why? I mean I could probably by in the world's top five billion 100m sprinters if I put my mind to it. If five billionth is unimpressive and 3rd is, where's the cut-off and why?

If winning isn't what counts why give out medals at all? You don't even need to run the race, just let all the entrants take a "victory" lap basking in the adulation of the crowd and be done with it.

Sorry, but a silver medal just means you failed.

@ChainJane what a horrible attitude. You sound like Competitive Dad on the Fast Show. I hope that's not how you talk to your dc when they don't come first at the school sports day or get all A *s in their exams.

Like I said, @AndthreeTomsaredancing, that’s not my experience of the athletes I know, who are much more concerned with their own sense of their actual performance. If they weren’t obsessed with the minutiae of their own capabilities, they wouldn’t be training six or seven days a week and sacrificing everything else. Someone I know slightly because we come from the same place won a gold overnight and judging by the interviews, he’s more nerdishly pleased about having pulled off some technicality at the start, and interested in what made them manage a world best in the semi but win with a slower final time — he’s not that medal-focused, though he’s pleased and proud for his parents/club/community’s excitement.

No medal and 4th means you are the 4 best athlete in your field in the entire world! Impressive!

@LynetteScavo

Even coming fourth in the Olympics is a great achievement, but rarely one that's celebrated.

I was going to say 4th is the worst place to come.

Although the way things tend to go, there's a decent chance of getting the medal later on when one of the top three gets done for doping...

Impressive to the rest of us, but I can see why to them it's disappointing, if they've been aiming at gold, and if they were expected to get it.

Each athlete will have their own goals, whether it's gold, or any medal, or top 10, or whatever. If they beat that, great. If they don't, then of course they will be disappointed and re-living every possible mistake - especially if they are interviewed right afterwards.

It's the same in any field, academic, music, sports etc. If you are capable of, and expecting, to get 100% at something, and you miss a few points, you will of course be thinking about those marks and what you could have done - it's how you get to the highest levels, by thinking always about those little details, let nothing escape, work out how you could have picked up marks/points/goals etc. You can't then just forget all that because it's the Olympics, and think 'oh fab, silver is great now' or whatever, if you were in contention for gold. Or be happy with 11th, if you were hoping for top-10, etc. You have to focus on the mistakes if you want to improve another time, and it's really frustrating to have people always saying 'oh be proud of what you've done, this is a great mark/score/place', when to you at the point, it's not. Or even if you ARE proud of it, you are still interested in and want to talk about what went wrong!! I think with the passage of time, that attitude changes, and people are proud of what they achieved over a career, but at the time, focusing on mistakes is both natural and necessary for improvement.

And also, it must be so awkward being interviewed and trying to figure out what to say, and how to come across to the public, etc, how not to seem arrogant, etc, and it could be easy to come across the wrong way.

There’s been psychological research which shows that on average bronze medallists are more satisfied than silver medallists. If you win silver you’ll always be thinking about how you missed out on gold. If you win bronze you think about how you beat someone into fourth.