What does the bronze medal mean to you?
Top three? Runner-up to the runner-up? Close, but no cigar?
How about ... LOSER?
Not only a loser, but a bigger loser than the loser the winner defeated to become the winner.
The bronze medal is a trinket whose only purpose is to remind athletes that they're closer to fourth-place than first-place.
It wasn't always like this. In the first modern-era Olympic Games, held in Athens in 1896, only the first two finishers received awards. There wasn't a gold medal yet. First-place received a silver medal and a crown of olive branches (a step down from Ancient Greece, which used to exempt champions from paying taxes for an Olympiad). Second-place athletes were given a crown made of laurel and a medal made of bronze.
That all changed at the 1904 Olympics, in which the gold medal was introduced as the ultimate prize for event champions. The silver was bumped down to second-place. Theoretically, the organizers now had all of these suddenly worthless bronzies on their hands, so third-place began receiving some hardware as well.
Where did this historic change in Olympic policy take place, you ask? Where else: the United States (St. Louis, to be exact), the land where everyone's a winner. Who else votes on an All-American second-team? What other nation hands out gold stars to every student in class, lest a single child begin questioning his or her own aptitude? Who else in the world could invent something as contemptuous as the "Homecoming Court?" (C'mon, people -- it's king or queen; everyone else is a nerd.)
Is the bronze medal really consistent with the bedrock virtues of athletic competition? Do teams battle for the right to raise three fingers in the air? When little boys unwrap their first baseball mitts on Christmas morning, do proud fathers gaze down and think, "One day my boy will grow up to be third in the MVP voting?"
Quick: When Affirmed beat Alydar in the Belmont Stakes in 1978 to win the Triple Crown, what horse completed the trifecta?
When Magic Johnson's Michigan State team defeated Larry Bird and Indiana State for the 1979 NCAA national basketball championship, who won the tournament consolation game?
Without the bronze medal, no athlete would ever "settle for" anything less than best or second best on the world's greatest stage. Countries like Mozambique, Belarus, and Sri Lanka would simply show up every four years for two ceremonies and the chance to be on TV.
Sure, the bronze medal has become an Olympic tradition, like the torch, the rings, and track-and-field athletes on horse tranquilizers. But back in 720 B.C., so was competing in the nude.
Can you imagine how awkward fencing would be if that tradition was allowed to continue?
So at the end of your favorite event in Athens -- whether it's Trampolining, Field Hockey, or Badminton -- take a good look at the medal stand. Admire the gold. Respect the silver. And then try not to giggle as the bronze asks for their autographs.
Greg Wyshynski is also a weekly columnist for SportsFan Magazine. His columns appear every Saturday on Sports Central. You can e-mail Greg at [email protected].
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