Last weekend, I went to watch my granddaughter play in her season-ending volleyball tournament. As I walked to the court, we passed a table covered with the nine- and ten-year-olds’ participation medals from the basketball league. Now, in sports, you get rewarded for just showing up. My first thought was that, when I was young, there was no such thing as participation trophies. How can kids succeed in a world where failure is common if we reward them for doing almost nothing? Don’t we learn more from our failures than our successes? If so, why don’t we, as parents, let our kids learn hard lessons from their losses in sports?

But there is one place where participation does matter. That’s in the Olympic Games.  

February was a terrific month for sports fans, of which I am one. We had the Super Bowl, the NBA All-Star Weekend, plenty of college basketball, the beginning of baseball’s spring training, and, of course, the Winter Olympics. I admit, I am an Olympics junkie. I become a fan of sports I would never watch (or even care about) if they weren’t part of the Olympic competition. That is especially true of the Winter Olympics. I mean, I hate the cold. I moved to Texas over 40 years ago, partly to get away from the snow. But in the comfort of my own cozy den, I watched curling, bobsled, luge, and skeleton (plus many other events) that I would never try on my own or even watch outside of the Olympics. Well, I could see myself trying curling, assuming my old body could ever get down in that stance curlers use to let go of the stones.

Growing up, every Saturday, I turned on the TV to watch ABC’s Wild World of Sports. I will never forget the introduction of the show, and its classic line about “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” And that’s one reason why I love the Olympics. There are always so many good story lines. There are favorites cracking under Olympic pressure, underdogs exceeding all expectations, controversy over the judging, wild confessions, tales of redemption, examples of courage, and so many more. And the best part is that all these storylines are true.

This year’s Winter Olympics were especially fun for me, as another granddaughter, a journalism student at Brigham Young University, had the opportunity to cover the Games for her student newspaper. I loved reading her coverage about the unknown stories behind the athletes and fans. There was USA’s snowboarder, Faye Thelen, whose first thought when she heard she had made the US Olympic Team was, “I couldn’t wait to tell my family.” It was Thelen’s fifth  Olympics, but she had retired after four to start a family. Two kids later, she returned to the sport she loved. But balancing workouts and family was not always easy, but her family always came first. That family now included a husband and two kids, and a brother living with a spinal cord injury. Thelen summed up her experience this way: “[The children] might not remember it, but I will have memories. We can always look back on that. It’s so different from when I was just a selfish athlete and single, just trying to win gold all the time.” Thelen lost in the semifinals of her event, but her participation alone was enough.    

Speaking of comebacks, consider Alysa Liu winning the gold medal in Women’s Figure Skating. As a young teenager, she was considered a phenom. But she grew tired of the sport, especially with family and coaches always telling her what to do and how to do it. So, she retired from skating. She decided to return, but on her own terms. She repeatedly told the press that she didn’t feel any Olympic pressure because the medals didn’t mean anything to her. She was skating simply because she loved the sport. And it showed. You could see the freedom, lightness, and joy in her skating.  The judges noticed it too and awarded her the gold medal.

The Winter Olympic Games have changed a lot over the years, with the introduction of the “extreme” events such as halfpipe. The things these athletes can do on snowboards and skis while in the air are, well, dizzying. One of the best parts of these Olympics for me was watching American Chloe Kim in the snowboard halfpipe. Kim was competing for a historic third consecutive gold medal in the event. She came up short, winning the silver, falling to her protégé and training partner, Korea’s Choi Gaon. After Choi fell on her second run, Kim told her, “You can do this. Don’t worry about what just happened. You got this. Shake it off.” And Choi did, making her third run a gold medal one. But watching Kim’s reaction, you would never know she came in second. She had nothing but praise for her competitor. For most Olympic participants, it is all about doing your best, regardless of the outcome.

I have forgotten many of the Olympic Games over my lifetime, but I will never forget the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. That is because of the participation of Jamaica’s four-man bobsled team, and Great Britain’s ski jumper, Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards. Neither the bobsled team nor Edwards earned a medal, but their stories were so remarkable that Hollywood made movies about them.

Cool Runnings[i] portrays the story of the Jamaican bobsled team, who almost pulled off one of the greatest upsets in Olympic history. I mean, when was the last time it snowed in Jamaica, a country known for its swift sprinters? In 1987, after Derice Bannock failed to qualify for the 100-meter dash in the 1988 Summer Olympics, he kept his Olympic dreams alive by forming a bobsled team and entered the 1988 Winter Olympics. Unfortunately, using an old, borrowed bobsled, the Jamaican team finished dead last after the first run. But they improved to eighth after the second run. And then this happened on their third run:

Fortunately, no one was hurt. But the Jamaican team had to walk to the finish line, carrying their broken-down sled. But as they did so, competitors and fans alike broke into cheers and applause, honoring what they had accomplished. I admit, I tear up every time I watch that scene. It wasn’t about the winning. It’s about following a dream and doing everything in your power to make that dream a reality.

The winner of this year’s ski jumping competition, Germany’s Phillipp Raimund, won with a jump of 106.5 meters. That’s traveling in the air more than a football field, including both endzones. That alone is remarkable. But then to learn that Raimund is scared of heights made the feat even more remarkable. In 2025, Raimund withdrew from competition because of that fear. A year later, he’s an Olympic champion. And that made me think of Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards.

Edwards dreamed of competing in the Olympics since he was a child. He tried to qualify as a downhill racer, but was not good enough. So, he turned to ski jumping. Great Britain had no ski jumpers on their Olympic team, so why not? Without competitors, all he had to do was land a jump long enough to qualify. In 1987, he participated in the World Championships. He finished 55th, but that was good enough. He was an Olympian.

In the 1988 Winter Olympics, Edwards finished last in both the 70-meter and 90-meter events, significantly behind all other competitors. Here is the scene from the film, Eddie the Eagle,[ii] of his 90-meter jump:

Edwards lack of success endeared him to people around the world, as they appreciated his efforts just to be in the Olympics. Even the president of the Organizing Committee, Frank King, singled out Edwards for his contribution during the closing ceremonies, addressing the competitors, “You have broken world records, and you have established personal bests. Some of you have even soared like an eagle.” 

Perhaps the most-followed storylines for Americans at these Olympics were the men’s and women’s US hockey teams winning gold medals in dramatic fashion against their archrivals from Canada. Both gold medal games were decided in overtime, 2-1. It was the men’s team’s first gold medal win since the famous Miracle on Ice win in 1980 against a heavily favored Soviet Union team. Hollywood made a movie about that win, Miracle,[iii] and it is still one of the best films about the Olympic Games. And who isn’t inspired by this speech made by Coach Brooks just before the game against the Soviets:

Whether we are athletes or not, there are times in our lives that matter. What we do with those moments is what matters most. It is not always about winning. As Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, said back in 1896, “The important thing in the Olympic Games is not the winning but the taking part. The important thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle.” Once again, the athletes of these Olympic Games have proven that you don’t always have to win to be a winner.        

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[i] Cool Runnings:

• Production Company: Walt Disney Pictures
• Director: Jon Turteltaub
• Writers: Tommy Swerdlow and Lynn Siefert (based on the story by Lynn Siefert and Michael Ritchie)
• Starring: John Candy, Leon, and Doug E. Doug
• Release date: October 1, 1993

[ii] Eddie the Eagle:

• Production Companies: CAMA Asset Storage & Recycling, Hurwitz Creative, and Lionsgate
• Director: Dexter Fletcher
• Writers: Simon Kelton and Sean Macaulay
• Starring: Taron Egerton, Hugh Jackman, and Tom Costello
• Release date: February 26, 2016

[iii] Miracle:

• Production Companies: Pop Pop Productions, Walt Disney Pictures, Determination Productions
• Director: Gavin O’Connor
• Writer: Eric Guggenheim
• Starring: Kurt Russell, Patricia Clarkston, and Nathan West
• Release date: February 6, 2004