“Your light must shine before others so that they may see your good acts and give praise to your Abba God in heaven.”
~Matthew 5:16, The Inclusive Bible

Have you been watching the 2024 Paris Olympics?  This week, I was thinking about one special Olympic moment—the U.S. men’s gymnastics team winning the bronze medal in the team competition.  It was the first medal the team won since 2008 (breaking a 16-year drought).  If you missed it, there’s a good recap from NPR: “U.S. men’s gymnastics team breaks 16-year Olympic drought with a team bronze.” 

It was dramatic and a wonderful example of how individuals can shine while helping their team achieve greatness—especially seeing Stephen Nedoroscik perform on the pommel horse!  Pommel horse is his specialty, and this is the one reason he came to Paris.  Stephen has a place on the team because he scores so big in his specialized event (a place that had been criticized prior to Paris).  Stephen waited all day to perform his routine (and he was the last performer to boot)!  It was amazing to see the pure joy at the end.  And yes, pure joy for the bronze.  As Emily Giambalvo wrote, “That’s the power of the Olympics: Viewers who cannot name the six apparatuses in men’s gymnastics fall in love with a glasses-wearing pommel horse star who clinched a bronze medal”*

This moment reminded me of research shared by Arthur Brooks about the triumph of coming in third.  If we treat competition as an all-or nothing endeavor, this mindset may not make us as happy as simply doing our best and finding satisfaction in that.  Here’s what Brooks shared (it’s lengthy and worth quoting in full), “In a 1995 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, scholars studied the emotional reactions of silver and bronze medalists in the 1992 Summer Olympic Games both immediately after their events and later on the awards podium. They discovered that the bronze winners appeared consistently happier on average than the silver medalists. (The study did not consider the gold-winning athletes.)  More recent research has looked at the life span of all three medalist categories. A 2018 study in the journal Economics & Human Biology tracked the average longevity of those representing the U.S. in the Olympic Games from 1904 to 1936 and found that the athlete whose best performance was silver lived to 72. Gold medalists beat this by a solid four years, living to 76. But first prize in longevity went to the bronze medalists, who lived to 78.”**

Silver medalists sometimes (unfortunately) view themselves as “first losers” because they are comparing themselves to those who won gold ahead of them.  On the other hand, bronze medalists tend to compare themselves favorably to everyone who didn’t medal.  Those who win the bronze may have a feeling of deep gratitude because they realize they may not have reached the podium at all!  Our perspectives matter.  Perhaps life is more about progress than perfection.  Why do we feel the need to compare ourselves to others anyway?

Watching a drought end, seeing a glasses-wearing pommel horse star clinch the bronze medal for his team, and remembering how powerful the Olympics can be . . . just a few thoughts to share this week.

Love,
Pastor Lauren

*Emily Giambalvo, “Stephen Nedoroscik is America’s quirky, glasses-wearing pommel horse hero,” The Washington Post, July 29, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2024/07/29/stephen-nedoroscik-pommel-horse-usa-mens-gymnastics/

**Arthur Brooks, “The Triumph of Coming in Third,” The Atlantic, June 29, 2023.

Photo by Chris Karidis on Unsplash