Disappointed in US Womens' Hockey Team

[RadioFanatic]

No, not that they won silver, but how they reacted to it. All through the Olympics, I've watched how happy people were when they won silver (other than that weird russian skater - platinum, come on now) and was really excited to watch our team win silver in hockey. Granted the ceremony was only a few minutes after the game ended; however, they acted like they were at a funeral instead of an awards ceremony partially in their honor, bawling and crying. One teammate even said on live television that winning the silver "sucked". They could have taken some notes from the bronze medalists who were not only gracious, but truly happy for winning. I was embarassed by our team.

 

[daughtersrus]

No, not that they won silver, but how they reacted to it. All through the Olympics, I've watched how happy people were when they won silver (other than that weird russian skater - platinum, come on now) and was really excited to watch our team win silver in hockey. Granted the ceremony was only a few minutes after the game ended; however, they acted like they were at a funeral instead of an awards ceremony partially in their honor, bawling and crying. One teammate even said on live television that winning the silver "sucked". They could have taken some notes from the bronze medalists who were not only gracious, but truly happy for winning. I was embarassed by our team.

They were talking about this as the game was going on. I think that it was Cammi Granato that said something along the lines that you win the gold and bronze but you loose to get the silver.

 

[FireDancer]

Enzo Ferrari had a good outlook on this. The second car across the finish line is just the fastest looser. If you expect to win and fail to do so you still failed, even if only by one place. If you expected to finish last and came in second, maybe you can chalk up a moral victory.

 

[puffkin]

They were talking about this as the game was going on. I think that it was Cammi Granato that said something along the lines that you win the gold and bronze but you loose to get the silver.

Exactly. It is a perfectly normal reaction.

I am a field hockey coach and my 4th grade team did very well this past year. Breakout for our program. Both tournaments we were in we lost our semifinal game. The girls were upset for a little, but then we regrouped and they "redeemed" themselves in the 3rd place game and were thrilled to win trophies. The second place team doesn't have a chance to "redeem" themselves and it is only natural to be disappointed.

 

[handinpocket]

Second place is just the first loser. I wouldn't find joy in mediocrity either.

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

The Silver Medal in the Olympics is definitely not mediocrity.

 

[OK!]

They were talking about this as the game was going on. I think that it was Cammi Granato that said something along the lines that you win the gold and bronze but you loose to get the silver.

Exactly. I don't think their reaction was out of line at all. You play the gold medal game to win GOLD, not silver.

 

[Ceila]

Second place is just the first loser. I wouldn't find joy in mediocrity either.

Wow, really? An Olympic silver medal, and you're calling them mediocre?

 

[RadioFanatic]

Like I said, I can understand being disappointed in losing that game, but be sportsmanlike (sportwomenlike?) about it, buck up and act a little like you are enjoying the silver medal. And to say it actually "sucked" to get silver . . . ?

 

[FireDancer]

Wow, really? An Olympic silver medal, and you're calling them mediocre?

I wouldn't call it mediocre. In the end though, there is one winner and a whole bunch of losers. 2nd place is a better loser than 10th place, but you still didn't win.

If you are competing for something other then winning this may not matter. A lot of people, for example, run a marathon not to win but to finish. For the elite runners who come to win, however, second place is losing.

 

[Deb in IA]

They were talking about this as the game was going on. I think that it was Cammi Granato that said something along the lines that you win the gold and bronze but you loose to get the silver.

I don't agree.

They WON 8 games in 10 days, and lost 1 to get the silver.

That is an achievement that almost any other team would love to have.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

Like I said, I can understand being disappointed in losing that game, but be sportsmanlike (sportwomenlike?) about it, buck up and act a little like you are enjoying the silver medal. And to say it actually "sucked" to get silver . . . ?

Understand that it did suck to get silver. When they woke up yesterday morning, they had already won silver. They were playing for gold. Winning silver meant that they had failed.

At least they didn't act like Plushenko...

 

[puffkin]

I don't think you can understand unless you have been an elite athlete.

I am not saying I was an elite athlete (far from it ), but I played field hockey and our team made it to the state field hockey finals and we lost. Looking back it was a HUGE accomplishment to be the second best team in the entire state, but boy did it SUCK then.

 

[kinntj]

Yep, it did suck to get the silver.

 

[daughtersrus]

I don't agree.

They WON 8 games in 10 days, and lost 1 to get the silver.

That is an achievement that almost any other team would love to have.

The only way to get silver is to loose. I don't think that any other team would be happy with silver either. I think that it's a natural reaction to be disappointed with loosing any game, especially the last one.

 

[TwingleMum]

I don't think they acted terribly. They are highly competitive and demanding and I'm sure it really rankled that not only did they lose but they were shut out. And to Canada a team that they have been battling with for a long time. I can understand their reaction. They were not disrespectful. They were disappointed and raw. Their people not robots.

I'm curious what do you think about the Canadian team having a beer kegger and smoking cigars on the ice?? Was that Olympic??

 

[RadioFanatic]

I don't think they acted terribly. They are highly competitive and demanding and I'm sure it really rankled that not only did they lose but they were shut out. And to Canada a team that they have been battling with for a long time. I can understand their reaction. They were not disrespectful. They were disappointed and raw. Their people not robots.

I'm curious what do you think about the Canadian team having a beer kegger and smoking cigars on the ice?? Was that Olympic??

no problem with that. It was WELL after the awards ceremony and when the public was out of the building. Should it have been kept in the locker room? Probably, but I understand the excitement. What the US women did, however, was during the ceremony and during live television.

 

[OK!]

I don't think you can understand unless you have been an elite athlete.

I am not saying I was an elite athlete (far from it ), but I played field hockey and our team made it to the state field hockey finals and we lost. Looking back it was a HUGE accomplishment to be the second best team in the entire state, but boy did it SUCK then.

Same thing for us at the state swim meet 2 years in a row. Even now, I still much would rather have won than gotten 2nd, and would still say that yes, it sucked to lose. We may have beaten a lot of teams but we didn't beat EVERYBODY, and that's what we'd set out to do. Ergo, we failed. Frankly, I would have been disappointed in myself and my teammates if we hadn't been upset with the loss.

 

[Belle Ella]

No, not that they won silver, but how they reacted to it. All through the Olympics, I've watched how happy people were when they won silver (other than that weird russian skater - platinum, come on now) and was really excited to watch our team win silver in hockey. Granted the ceremony was only a few minutes after the game ended; however, they acted like they were at a funeral instead of an awards ceremony partially in their honor, bawling and crying. One teammate even said on live television that winning the silver "sucked". They could have taken some notes from the bronze medalists who were not only gracious, but truly happy for winning. I was embarassed by our team.

You were embarrassed??!! I don't understand that logic one bit. They put their hearts into the games they played and you expect them to be all happy-go-lucky directly after losing the most important game of the Olympics? It wasn't even like they had time to regroup before they were awarded their medals. In Olympic events like hockey, the silver medal is the only one of the three that's awarded directly after losing. It's got to be a tough pill to swallow. I don't blame them in the slightest for their obvious disappointment. It doesn't mean they are going to throw a tantrum about it days later like a certain figure skater. It doesn't mean they can't be proud of a medal. It just means that their emotions were running high after a loss.

 

[crashbb]

I think that you are being too hard on them. There have definitely been examples of poor losers (Plushenko and Vonn wearing her Gold medal in the photo of medal winners when she received her bronze, for example), but the US hockey team, though disappointed, didn't (to me at least) try to take away from the Canadian victory.

Also, in what is basically a two-team event (except for the anomaly last Olympics), silver is basically last place (to the Canadian and Americans).