To the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and relevant International Federations,

For more than a century, the Olympic Games have celebrated excellence through three medals: gold, silver, and bronze. This tradition, deeply ingrained in history, has been closely tied to national pride, power, and prestige. However, our world – and our values – have evolved.

Today, discussions about athlete mental health, inclusion, fairness, peace, and the compelling human stories behind each performance have gained prominence. These conversations demand a reevaluation of how we acknowledge excellence and how many athletes we truly choose to see.

As fans and global citizens, we often watch Olympic finals in which four, five, or even more performances feel genuinely “medal-worthy” in terms of difficulty, artistry, and sacrifice. Yet almost all of the attention, history, and official recognition is concentrated on just three athletes or teams.

Consider the athlete who finishes fourth, sometimes separated from bronze by a tiny margin. Their journey is equally grueling, their sacrifices just as profound. In many instances, these athletes, and others just outside the podium come from nations with limited resources, striving against overwhelming odds simply to stand on the Olympic stage. For them, qualifying and competing is already an extraordinary achievement, yet they leave with little formal recognition.

We want to be clear:
We are not asking the Olympic Movement to stop celebrating gold, silver, and bronze. Excellence still matters. Competition still matters. Many of us are deeply inspired by those who reach the very top.

What we are asking is that the current medal and recognition system be expanded and complemented so it better reflects today’s Olympic values.

Envision an Olympic platform that embraces more athletes—recognizing, for example, the top 5 or top 6 finishers in each event with an official finalist medal, ribbon, or distinction. Such an evolution would not dilute the significance of the traditional three medals. Instead, it would:

Honour more individuals whose performances are already at the highest level,
Acknowledge the reality of unequal funding and support across countries,
Highlight remarkable stories from athletes who compete with significant structural “handicaps”,
And promote values of inclusion, solidarity, and shared human effort.
The inclusion of additional ranked distinctions could also help shift the culture from an “all-or-nothing” narrative to a broader celebration of human endeavour and perseverance. This would support athlete mental health by recognizing that an extraordinary performance does not suddenly become “nothing” because it finished just outside the top three.

These ideas are not about giving everyone a prize. They are about aligning the Olympic Games more closely with the principles already written into the Olympic Charter: placing sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, and promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.

In that spirit, we respectfully ask the IOC and relevant International Federations to:

Explore official finalist medals, ribbons, or distinctions for athletes who finish just outside the podium (for example, top 5–6 in each event);
Strengthen the visibility and storytelling around athletes who have trained and competed with very limited national support or funding;
Consider new forms of recognition for performances judged by experts to be of exceptional artistic (if applicable), technical, or emotional impact, even if they do not result in a traditional medal.
While the Olympics aim to bring the world together, we must ensure that the principles of unity, dignity, and recognition are meaningfully present in the journey of every competitor, not only the three who stand highest on the podium.

By evolving the Olympic recognition system in this way, the Games can:

Remain relevant to our changing world,
Better represent our global society and its values,
And allow more athletes and nations to share in the pride of achievement.
We, the undersigned, believe that the time has come to honour more than three stories in each Olympic event, not to erase gold, silver, and bronze, but to ensure that excellence, courage, and sacrifice beyond the podium are also officially seen and remembered.

Please join us in this call for change and for a more inclusive, humane expression of the Olympic spirit.