It is here yet again. Rinse and repeat, the calls for 4th place medals reappear every two years to deaf ears. Come on people, ya gotta dig a little deeper than just because it feels bad to be in 4th. Look here below, and it will all make sense. If they ever do expand the medals, here are some sound and logical arguments to do so, below.
This year in 2022, year of the Tiger, there are three additional rings.
Athletes who place below 24th get a Qoppa Ring. Qoppa is an archaic Greek letter. Since there are 24 letters in the Greek Alphabet the first 24 finishers get a unique letter. However everyone who finishers from 25th to last gets a Qoppa Ring.
The Heta Ring is for participants who do not finish. It can be for any number reasons. They get injured at the event. Something happens personally where to do not finish, whatever the reason. This is partial credit ring.
Finally there is the Digamma ring, for Olympians who qualified but did not show up at the Olympics. It can be for various reasons from very personal, injury, or a a boycott by their home nation. Thus all the athletes who missed the Moscow 1980 Olympics should have gotten a Digamma Ring. For this year, 2022, all the athletes from North Korea get a Digamma Ring.
Every participant gets a ring, it's an idea consistent with Olympic Creed. They only get one ring. The ring of this highest rank or win. They can still snatch as many medals as they can win, but they will only get one ring per Olympics.
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Expansion of medals for 4th & 5th place
2012 London Olympics
Although China got first gold the USA got first Tin, likewise Czech got the fist Copper.
Jamie-Lynn Gray of the USA gets the first unofficial honorary "TIN" medal of the 2012 Olympic Games!
Why two extra medals? Because it matches with the five rings of the
Olympic flag - a medal for each continent. Besides those athletes
worked so hard and sacrificed so much.
Finally since the Olympic flag has five rings - five medals make a
harmonious whole for the five continents. This idea is in harmony with
the official Olympic Creed:
"THE
MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE OLYMPICS IS NOT TO WIN BUT TO TAKE PART,
JUST AS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN LIFE IS NOT THE TRIUMPH BUT THE
STRUGGLE. THE ESSENTIAL THING IS NOT TO HAVE CONQUEORED BUT TO HAVE
FOUGHT WELL" -PIERRE DE COUBERTIN
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Added 8/11/2016
FIVE RINGS = FIVE MEDALS
The original spirit of the new games was to come together in healthy
competition and community, not necessarily for a medal count. So here
is a suggestion, since there are five rings why not five medals?
Fourth
and fifth place certainly deserve something for their fortitude and so
close effort! They don't even have to stand on the podium or get their
flags raised. But maybe they can stand on the flanking left and right
sides? Also if it's a team sport then only one member of the team can
stand by the podium. When the Olympics started in 1896 there weren't as
many nations participating as their are today. In fact their were only
14 nations, now there are over 200 participating nations.
5 Olympic Rings match with 5 Olympic Medals
So
what would the metals be made up of? It really does not matter but it
would make sense to have them made up of the constituent elements of
bronze. Thus fourth place gets copper while fifth place gets tin.
So that would make 6
th place the unlucky duck who just missed out..... but not completely!
Another
idea that would take focus away from national obsession for trophies,
is to give out awards to the best 24 competitors. Since the Games are
based on Greek culture why not give out ring trophies to the top 24
competitors? Just wait till you hear how we would do this!
24 Olympic Achievement Rings based on the Greek Alphabet from Alpha to Omega, for the top 24 places.
First
it will promote Greek Culture, and thus the world will become familiar
with Greek letters. Second, we all enjoy the games because of the
Greeks, it's the right thing to do to honor the Greeks. Finally all
those
athletes who
sacrificed so much certainly deserve something.
Thus 1st place gets the
Alpha ring, the 2
nd place gets the Beta ring, 3rd gets a Gamma ring, 4
th gets a Delta ring, and 5
th gets an Epsilon ring in addition to their medals the receive already.
6
th place to 24
th would not get a medal but only rings of their respective position. 6
th gets a ring with Eta on it while 24
th position gets a ring with Omega on it. The person or team in 25
th does not get a Greek Ring, but only a token participant ring.
Doing
this is in the spirit of the games for community and healthy
competition, and in respect to the Greeks who started these games. If
this is done, people all over the world will eventually know the Greek
Alphabet through osmosis
(my favorite Greek word).
If
they ever expand the medal reward system, why not also crown 1st place
with a wreath of olives too? Apparently in the original Greek Games
only the winner received this olive branch token. Medals for 1st let
alone 2
nd and 3rd were modern contrivances.
Besides, wearing an
Olympic medal in public after the games are over is a wee bit ostentatious, no? But the
athletes who placed in the top 24 positions can still strut their stuff and inspire others with "Official Place Position Olympic Rings."
The rings of fist five places should match their medal position. Thus 1st place gets a golden ring, 2
nd a silver ring, 3rd a bronze ring, 4
th a copper ring, and 5
th a tin ring. Places 6
th and below get a regular ring made out of a less expensive metal than tin or some alloy of it.
These
men and women worked hard and sacrificed time, money, and certain
aspects of their youth. They deserve something. If any of these ideas
are adopted then former
Olympic athletes can easily show others a humble
memento and inspire.
They can keep the fire of the Olympics shining
wherever they go.
Did you know that expanding the medal reward system has already happened for the modern Olympics? The first two Olympics at Athens & Paris only gave out official medals for first and second. And they did not give out any gold. Instead first place received a silver medal and second place got a bronze medal. If you placed third – you got nada.
It wasn’t until the first American Olympics in St. Louis that gold medals were handed out. So
if you think we shouldn’t add medals for fourth or fifth just because
it breaks with tradition – tradition has already been broken.
Furthermore, when you do the math on the ratio of prizes to participating nations the shift in numbers is staggering. During the first modern Olympics there were 14 participating nations competing for 2 medals (first and second). This
leads to a 1 out of 7 chance of randomly winning a medal. Basically, if
things were led to chance a nation had a 14% chance of winning a
medal.* When
they started handing out gold medals for first place at the St. Louis
Olympics the ratio actually increased to about 1 to 4, because there
were 3 medals to win for 12 participating nations (25% chance). Fast
forward to the Rio-2016 Olympics with 206 participating nations –
the ratio of winning a medal is about 1 to 69. In terms of a percentages that’s about a 1% chance of winning a medal.
Let’s
say they expand to five medals for the top five places, the ratio
changes to about 1 to 42, raising the chances of winning a medal a
measly 2%. So if you are worried that giving fourth and fifth a medal will devalue 1st, 2nd or 3rd - is one percent a big fuss?
Now
when you calculate the 24 ring-alphabet awards with 2016-Rio
Olympic numbers the pure chance ratio of winning ring is about 1 to 8.5 –
which is only 12%. Note 12% is a lot closer to the original ratio or percentage of the first modern Olympics at Athens.
So why not!? Think of all that hard work and sacrifice those athletes put into their training – the heartache, time, tears, sweat, and blood. Certainly they deserve a better shot at winning a medal or at least snatching a humble token of their dedication and fortitude. The time has come to expand the Olympic medal reward system.
An
expanded idea for the Olympic rings is that all participants get a
ring. If they place 24 or higher they get a Greek letter carved in it,
if they place 5th or higher they get a medal. Athletes who place 25th
or below get a ring with logo of the host nations choosing, perhaps the
year, place, and logo. Thus all athletes get a ring, some will get the
generic participant ring, some will get a Greek lettered ring, while a
few will get a coveted gold, silver, bronze, copper, and tin ring.
Finally since the Olympic flag has five rings - five medals make a
harmonious whole for the five 'official' continents. Once again, this idea is consistent with
the official Olympic Creed:
"THE
MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE OLYMPICS IS NOT TO WIN BUT TO TAKE PART,
JUST AS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN LIFE IS NOT THE TRIUMPH BUT THE
STRUGGLE. THE ESSENTIAL THING IS NOT TO HAVE CONQUEORED BUT TO HAVE
FOUGHT WELL" -PIERRE DE COUBERTIN
