Is profitable a silver medal on the Olympics actually a letdown? Why the way in which we discuss 2nd place issues.

Everybody loves a redemption story. So when Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey and Hezly Rivera won gold Tuesday within the ladies’s all-around gymnastics closing, it is smart that the narrative was targeted on Group USA’s comeback after putting second in Tokyo three years in the past. Their victory “helped erase recollections of the silver,” wrote the New York Times. Different retailers known as the 2021 efficiency “disappointing.” Biles — who withdrew from some Tokyo occasions resulting from psychological well being struggles — has been centered in lots of of those tales. Whereas she’s been praised for rising as essentially the most embellished gymnast in historical past and main her group to gold in 2024, Biles can’t escape references to having beforehand “derailed the team’s gold-medal hopes” in 2021.

Group USA swimming has acquired related remedy in protection of the occasions which have taken place to this point in Paris. Following Bobby Finke’s silver medal within the males’s 800-meter freestyle on Tuesday, NPR printed a piece titled “The once-mighty U.S. swim group sinks in early Olympic races, profitable solely two golds.”

The historical past of the 2 groups and competitions is completely different, however the messaging is similar — silver, apparently, simply isn’t adequate. However why?

The connection between Olympic medals and success

“Now we have a number of constructions or variations of what it means to win and to lose,” Francesco Duina, professor of sociology at Bates Faculty and writer of Winning: Reflections on an American Obsession, tells Yahoo Life. On the Olympics, completely different groups and even people are subjected to completely different requirements of success based mostly on set expectations.

Profitable isn’t outlined by the colour of the medal in that case, however as an alternative by the power to “fulfill the expectations as they have been set,” says Duina. “Something in need of that’s thought of a failure.”

By that measure, third place is a hit for U.S. males’s gymnastics, a group who hadn’t earned an Olympic medal in 16 years. The first-ever Olympic medal for the U.S. ladies’s rugby sevens group can be historic and thrilling. Each outcomes exceeded expectations, no less than as they have been set by most of the people.

The narrative across the ladies’s gymnastics group each in Tokyo and Paris stems from this as nicely. Their efficiency in 2021 fell in need of the expectations set by gold medal wins in 2012 and 2016. Main as much as 2024, the gymnastics group was stated to be on a “redemption tour” to return to that normal of success.

However there’s nonetheless bother in placing a adverse connotation to the silver medal, particularly contemplating Biles’s openness in regards to the psychological well being struggles she was experiencing on the time, says Imani M. Cheers, a professor of media and public affairs on the George Washington College who specializes within the illustration of Black ladies in media.

“I discover it ridiculous for anybody to criticize somebody who has extra Olympic medals in gymnastics than another particular person in historical past, somebody who’s doing actually death-defying feats in her sport, somebody who’s then courageous sufficient to not solely prioritize but additionally focus on her psychological well being and the explanation that it’s essential to prioritize stated psychological well being,” Cheers tells Yahoo Life, noting that at the same time as Biles gained gold, she’s confronted criticism for issues as trivial as her hair. “I believe she deserves not solely grace, however numerous gratitude.”

Past media framing and public notion, how do the athletes themselves really feel about bringing again a medal that is not gold? A 2016 study analyzing the feelings of Olympic athletes on the rostrum revealed that there are a number of elements that impression the happiness of a silver or bronze medalist. Some situations present that these in third place are happier than these in second. “Silver medalists might take into consideration how they’re upset to not have made a gold, and bronze medalists take into consideration how fortunate they’re to be on the rostrum in any respect,” the paper suggests.

Context, like how shut the scores of every medalist have been and the way they felt they carried out in competitors, can affect these feelings as nicely. For the document, Biles seemed to be nothing however proud of her team’s silver medal in 2021 — and their 2024 gold.

How can we alter the narrative?

Before everything, it’s essential to have a good time an athlete or group’s current accomplishment and embrace the journey that introduced them right here.

“At this second, the place Simone was in a position to lead her group, lead her nation to victory and safe the gold medal, for anybody to say something adverse is only a hater as a result of there may be nothing adverse that may very well be stated,” says Cheers. “There’s additionally nothing adverse to slight or attempt to erase a silver medal, which is a big accomplishment.”

Secondly, strive adopting the Olympian’s personal normal of success, which these days has little to do with medals. “I really feel like success is simply what I make it. I’ve been profitable competing at Olympic trials, making the Paris Olympic group, so we’ll see from there on out,” said Biles after profitable the U.S. Olympic trials earlier this summer season. “We do it for ourselves and the love for the game and the love for representing the U.S. So we’re going to go on the market and we’re going to do our greatest.”

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