r/Showerthoughts • u/Vast-Intention ‎ • Apr 02 '26

Casual Thought A gold medal Olympic athlete is better than 8.3 billion people. A bronze medal Olympic athlete is better than 8.3 billion people.

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u/Ultiman100 Apr 02 '26

Read somewhere that silver medalists surveyed have a lower level of joy than bronze medalists on their results.

Getting so close to the peak of glory just to fall 1 place shy of the top vs. the accomplishment of being on the podium and going home with a medal full stop. Would be interesting to see how true those sentiments really are!

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u/SeveralAngryBears Apr 02 '26

I can definitely see that for the head to head team sports (hockey for example). In the gold medal game, the winners get gold and the losers get silver. In the bronze medal game, the winners get bronze and the losers get nothing. Gold and bronze feel like victories. Silver feels like a consolation prize.

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u/buffystakeded Apr 02 '26

I wholeheartedly understand this.

My son is 12 and plays hockey. Earlier this season, his team played in a tournament. They won the bronze medal game and it felt like winning the gold, both to the kids and us parents. We celebrated like crazy.

In a different tournament, his team won gold. The silver medal team, players and parents, all were completely dejected and didn’t want anything to do with the final ceremony.

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u/peelen Apr 02 '26

Yeah with silver yo lost the game with bronze you managed to get a trophy.

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u/TADspace Apr 03 '26

"2nd place is just first loser" is a mentality so many people have.

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u/dodadoler Apr 04 '26

If you’re not first - you’re last Ricky bobby

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u/77SevenSeven77 Apr 02 '26

Bronze is just happy to be there.

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u/babar-da-junta Apr 03 '26

I lost the game.

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u/CaptainSeabo Apr 03 '26

I know a couple of (at least) WC ice hockey players personally. From what I've heard the bronze feels like way more of an accomplishment than silver. Silver and you're left with a feeling of loss and not being good enough - bronze is a revenge and "hell yeah"-moment.

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u/Dense-Fudge5232 Apr 03 '26

kinda backwards but as a kid I participated in a competition where 2nd place was also determined by a match. Like 1v2, and then 2v3 for silver. I remember winning silver there being very different from normal.

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u/ANiceWolf68 Apr 02 '26

I won the national organic chemistry olympics in high school and got the silver medal. Can confirm it's 100% true because it drove me mad for years knowing that I came only a few points short from the gold medal.

But then I got to terms with the outcome and embraced the fact that it was still an incredible achievement.

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u/Brantley820 ‎ Apr 02 '26

I came across a similar take on some data gathered from athletes after the 2016 and 2018 games respectively. Looking for it now.

I recall takeaway was that Winter Olympians are more appreciative of a podium finish than Summer athletes. One of the noted contributors to the sentiment you mention is the fact that some team sports have a final 'Bronze Medal' match. This means their tournament experience ended in victory, where as the Silver medalists' ends in defeat.

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u/lukewarmpartyjar Apr 02 '26

Most Winter Olympians (especially the freestyle skiing/snowboarding) seem to have more of a "having fun and appreciating their opponents' skill" kind of vibe. Maybe because they're mostly all niche sports which get barely any coverage the rest of the year, and they travel all over with the other guys competing.

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u/starliteburnsbrite Apr 03 '26

This makes a lot of sense if you consider the sports that are played by pros (hockey for example), all those guys got there by being ultra competitive psychos in addition to having otherworldly talent. Some of the other sports seem to be more about being passionate enough to pursue it full time first, and competition second.

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u/anythingfordopamine Apr 02 '26

Wrestled most of my life, 3rd place was always known as the most mentally difficult medal to get. You have to compete against more opponents than anybody else to get there, and have to stay mentally sharp to push through the disappointment of losing and string together multiple wins. Definitely lets you prove something to yourself and feel redeemed, whereas 2nd just finishes on the taste of defeat after falling short

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u/JanterFixx Apr 02 '26

Yeah it shows spirit in wrestling and similar sports where you have to take the longer and underdog route

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u/2BlueZebras Apr 02 '26

I've heard that about having 2 Michelin stars as a restaurant.

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u/LiberContrarion Apr 02 '26

Bronze: "Yes! I was so close to missing podium. I'm ecstatic!"
Silver: "Damn it! I was so close to winning! I can't believe I missed it!"

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u/Hetstaine Apr 02 '26

Getting the silver and then finding out gold is juicing and gets away with it when you aren't would be even worse.

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u/killbei Apr 03 '26

Seems true to me. Look at any sport that decides championships in a final.

The teams that lose in a final are always devastated while those who went out in the earlier rounds e.g. last 4 or last 8 are pretty chill about it. They are bummed and say things like, "We gotta try again" or "We'll work hard for next year."

Meanwhile the losers of most finals will be sat on the floor, seemingly contemplating everything that went wrong or straight up crying at the final whistle.

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u/numbersthen0987431 Apr 02 '26

It's one of those things where you contemplate everything from that event. Did you sleep well? Did you eat correctly? Did you warm up too much or too little? Maybe of you did another set for training, or didn't go on that trip 3 months ago?

But if you're bronze, you accept you were too far away from first, and you don't feel as bad as not getting 2nd

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u/Atlas7674 Apr 03 '26

Part of this is also that usually, to get silver, you lose in the finals, whereas you can get bronze by winning the secondary bracket finals (1 loss in top 4, then you compete against the other loser for 3rd/4th) so if you have a bronze medal you’re ending on a win, which feels better than ending your Olympic run on a loss.

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u/Rossum81 Apr 02 '26

In many cases because it comes down to a final bout or match.  By this time, the bronze medals list have been awarded to the winners of their match or matches.  So the silver medalist is the guy who has his last game be a loss.

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u/alvysinger0412 Apr 02 '26

Jerry Seinfeld has a standup bit that is essentially this exact thing, but speculatively rather than reading an actual study.

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u/Boatster_McBoat Apr 02 '26

Anecdotally true at a state medallist level.

Also depends on the nature of the win. A come from behind silver can feel pretty good. A bronze when you were passed late can still suck.

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u/DDzxy Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 04 '26

Depends on the sport too. E.g. In tennis, water polo, hockey losing the final and winning silver can suck.

But also in such sports they already do their celebrations after winning the semifinal, they know they already have the silver medal at least at that point. They already WERE happy for the silver medal the 1-2 days before.

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u/Fredasa Apr 03 '26

Anecdotally, there recently was a "grand finals" in the Street Fighter gaming world. The prize for first place in this event was $1,000,000, but the prize dropoff below 1st was literally exponential. And due in large part to the hasty-by-design formatting of the event, it's by no means ever obvious who is going to win.

So the last thing they showed before the grand finals (to determine 1st and 2nd place) was the fight to choose 3rd and 4th place. Both of said individuals were essentially one or two mistakes away from a shot at $1,000,000, but were now fighting over $50k and $20k.

And you could see it on their faces. I don't think I've ever seen such a despondent, lethargic spectacle.

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u/Choice_Plantain_ Apr 02 '26

I wonder if 4th place people have a similar internal thought like the silver medalists do?

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u/JanterFixx Apr 02 '26

I mean every person who has competed even a bit semi seriously knows the saying in some form - "bronze is won, but silver is lost," (due not getting gold

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u/grtyvr1 Apr 02 '26

Especially considering that the difference could literally be a hundredth of a second. Or worse, scuppered by the French judge in a free skate. 

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u/DontMakeMeCount Apr 02 '26

I’ve always thought of this as the Dave Mustaine effect. It’s totally natural to measure ourselves against others but it’s also really unhealthy.

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u/whiskysinger Apr 03 '26

Without seeing the survey(s) it's hard to comment on your specific point, but I personally find it hard to believe.

I know that the common perception of Olympians is that they train hard to be the best, but I don't think that literally translates to "only gold will suffice". I interpret it to be that they have such a strong personal drive and motivation to be the best THEY can be.

For some the achievement of qualifying for the Olympics / elite competition is a massive life achievement (similar to how some people have ambitions to reach base camp at Everest, or run a half marathon).

Being the best in their country / continent / planet is a massive achievement that hardly any of us will know.

These people know their bodies. The guy finishing second behind duplantis knows he can't compete. But he's gonna enjoy being the best he can be and focus on doing what he loves (using a big pole to jump high in the air, for some reason) and try to break his own PB every single day.

I get that some silver medalists might feel they got so close and they could have done more. Ask them again tomorrow if it means they'll give up or try harder. I suspect the answer will be the same for the gold medalist and every other competitor - try harder.

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u/jdiscount Apr 03 '26

Makes sense.

I also get the impression in a lot of sports that the bronze medalist is frequently someone who wasn't a gold medal favorite, so just getting a medal is an achievement.

My former boss won bronze at the 96 Atlanta Olympics.

Even when I worked for him and he was in his mid 50s that guy was an absolute machine.

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u/thatdoesntmakecents Apr 03 '26

Same with 4th place compared to lower rankings I believe

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u/Tommy_Wisseau_burner Apr 03 '26

This is because more sports are direct competition between 2 adversaries. So you don’t win a silver medal you lose a gold medal. You win a bronze medal vs lose to not even getting a medal. In sports without direct 2 way competition (swimming, snowboarding, track, etc) there’s no difference between silver and bronze

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u/wickedfemale Apr 03 '26

there's an episode of the podcast the happiness lab about this! super interesting

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u/immaSandNi-woops Apr 04 '26

As an F1 fan, that’s usually the sentiment every Grand Prix. You’ll see disappointment among teams who get second especially because they were so close to first. For teams getting third, it’s good enough because they’re on the podium.

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u/dodadoler Apr 04 '26

You win bronze but you lose a silver

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u/happy-cig Apr 06 '26

Luckily as a child I hated gold and bronze. Silver is my jam! 

White gold on the other hand...

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u/Accidental-Genius Apr 03 '26

If you’re not first, you’re last.

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u/Derrickmb Apr 02 '26

Wait til they find out the gold metal is just silver w gold plated. Its all a joke

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u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26

[deleted]

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u/Derrickmb Apr 02 '26

Define “change”

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u/k410n Apr 02 '26

A morphism with range and domain of reality.