At every gold medal game, one team rejoices and another team weeps. But while the silver medal eventually feels like a prize, I get the feeling that, at the time of receiving it, it can feel more like an insult. And the worst part is that, rather than retreating to the dressing room and drowning their sorrows in private, the losing team has to stay out on the ice or the field or whatever, and watch the winners celebrate, all the while thinking "it could have been us." 

And then, if you remember back in 2018, one player on the Swedish World Junior team, who lost the gold medal game to us Canadians, threw his silver medal over the glass! That, for me, was the final straw. 

I propose a new gold medal format: Losers of the two semi-finals play for silver, winners of the two semi-finals play for gold, and losers of the gold and silver finals play for bronze. It might mean that the gold medal game will no longer be the final game, but at least everyone who wins a medal will actually win it. I wrote the Olympic Comity and suggested this four years ago and I never heard back. So maybe if I go public with this, someone will listen to me. 

I just want everyone to walk away from a medal win feeling happy, not disappointed. It is a prize after all.