Watching the Olympics I’m struck by how many silver medalists dispIay sadness, frustration, and even anger at getting silver. We saw Yevgeny Plushenko’s visible frustration on the podium, and the U.S. women’s hockey team in tears as they consoled one another for their “loss.” For athletes of some countries, anything less than gold can actually mean negative repercussions for the athlete’s family.
In The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less Barry Schwartz researched the psychology of satisfaction and regret, and points out that Olympic bronze medalists are typically happier than silver medalists with the latter often experiencing life-long remorse. “If only I had done this, if I hadn’t done that.”
I asked Paul Kingsman, a professional speaker and Olympic bronze medalist about this and he agreed. “Whereas the bronze medalist has the appreciation of avoiding loss, the silver medalist tends to focus on what they feel they lost by not being one place better,” Kingsman says. “The closeness of the downside is more significant to the bronze medalist and tends to outweigh the potential thoughts of 'woulda, coulda shoulda' that the silver medalist might be feeling.”
Kingsman talks about how he trained as a competitive swimmer not to beat others, but to win by competing against himself. “We took the view that the objective was to swim two minutes; I had no guarantee that two minutes would be fast enough to win,” Kingsman says. “But I hit my time and on the day, it was good enough for a medal.” As it turned out, he nabbed that medal by only four one-hundredths of a second!
As we wrap up watching the Olympics it's a good time to think about what we want to excel in. But as we do it's important to note that winning--be it gold, silver, or bronze--involves factors that are often out of our control. Teddy Roosevelt said that what really counts is to be in the arena. Only then do you have a chance at winning anything.