Can we can have participation medals in the Olympics?

Participation awards are useless. Rather than adding them to the Olympics, we should remove them from grade school.

@SavoirFaire Good old days , I would come home with a whole bunch of firsts, seconds and thirds, I rarely got participation ribbons. Those who have puberty early cleaned house with firsts. I had a shot at the Olympics and I dislocated my knee and was crippled for two years. By that time I found that I like sleeping in and drinking name brand cola, and watching TV. and I found enjoyment reading forgotten realms , dragon lance, and D&D novels.

Seems good to me. Every single athlete at the Olympics has put in an incredible amount of time and effort. Simply qualifying to be there is an acheivement which puts them in the vast minority of all people. Might as well give them a ribbon.

Yes we could have participation medals but they would mean nothing.

@PhiNotPi Do you think they’ll forget they qualified if we don’t give them a ribbon?

Nah, screw “it’s the taking part that counts” that’s the mantra of born losers.

Liberal rubbish.

I had so many “trophies” from my kids sports participation but when they left home the only ones they wanted and took were the 1st and some of the better looking 2nd place tournament trophies, not the rah-rah participation ones. Those ended up in the trash.

Yeah, and they’ll be in the garbage by the next week. There is a reason they keep score. If you don’t know why you’ll never be a winner.

@rojo: “Liberal rubbish”

TIL there is a political motivation to handing out participation tokens to kindergarten kids.

(Obama)

@SavoirFaire No, they won’t forget. A 1st place finisher wouldn’t forget their placement either, if we decided to stop handing out gold medals.

@PhiNotPi Indeed. So perhaps we should go back to the old days when we didn’t hand those out either. I would have no objection to that. In fact, a return to the days of olive wreaths might be nice. The impermanence of the award is a literal reminder not to rest on one’s laurels.

As it turns out, by the way, the top eight finishers get Olympic diplomas, and most participants do get commemorative medals.

I like the idea. Some sort of token at least. I guess the cost would add up, but it is such an accomplishment for the athletes I think it would be a nice thing to do. Maybe they do get all sorts of souveniers, which kind of serves as the same thing.

I am completely against medals and trophies for all children in school sports whether they win or lose, but the Olympics is different.

Both teams in the superbowl get a ring.