During the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, a group of social psychologists performed a test involving second and third-place finishers. They found that bronze medalists are happier than silver medalists, in general -- they had made the stand instead of empty-handed but for a participant's medal, a diploma and mandated drug test. Silver medalists, it was found, were generally focused on the missed opportunity for gold, what might have been.
At least second place gets you a medal. Those who finish slightly out of the medals after years of preparation, training and sacrifice are, as a group, inconsolable. The founder of the modern Games, Pierre de Coubertin, may have famously said, "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part," but that's of little relief to the fourth-place finisher. In what may end up being an occasional feature on the site, we look at several notable tin medalists in Summer Olympic history.
Marianne Limpert (Canada)
Swimming: Women's 200m Individual Medley -- Sydney 2000
A 10-year veteran of the Canadian national team, Marianne Limpert recorded the fourth-fastest 200 IM time in the world in 2000 at her nation's Olympic trials. Little did anyone know at the time that the number four would come up again in a far more ignominious fashion.
In Sydney, Limpert was as serious contender for 200 IM gold as there was. She had silvered in 1996 behind Ireland's Michelle Smith, who was suspended two years later for tampering with a drug test. And in the early heats, she was the fastest swimmer after the butterfly and backstroke laps in both her qualifier and semifinals before easing up. But in the final, she struggled to keep pace and found herself in fifth place after 150 meters. She had to mount a furious push in the final freestyle lap.
The above picture, taken by Fred Thornhill of the Toronto Sun, shows Limpert's reaction as she looked up at the final results. Yana Klochkova, generally considered a distance swimmer, had won in 2:10.68, and Limpert had indeed pulled herself up -- to fourth, losing the bronze by .12 of a second to American Cristina Teuscher.
"Maybe some press-on nails would have made the difference," Limpert sobbed later. "Right now, fourth place feels like last."
Li Jiawei (Singapore)
Table Tennis: Women's Singles -- Athens 2004
In 1995, a 14-year-old Li Jiawei was spotted by Singaporean table tennis scouts in her native Beijing, who brought her to the city-state for training. She became a citizen in 1999, and collected over 30 medals in singles, doubles and team events in her first seven years of world-class competition before the Athens Games.
And while table tennis-mad Chinese fans were nonplussed enough at Li's defection, she eliminated the country's defending Olympic champion Wang Nan in a quarterfinal match that went the five-set distance. Li was ahead three sets to one in the best-of-seven semifinals, but lost three straight sets to be relegated to the bronze medal match.
There, Li met upstart South Korean Kim Kyung-ah, who came into the event unseeded and unheralded. Li took the first set 11-9, but was undone by Kim's square-shouldered defense and dropped the final four sets 8-11, 7-11, 5-11 and 8-11. When it was over, she exploded in tears. Singapore hadn't won an Olympic medal since the country's lone weightlifting silver in 1960, and would have to wait some more.
Since Athens, she has continued to excel in regional events and continental championships, earning a bronze in the recent Asian Cup. Li will compete in the Beijing Games, but as this Reuters profile shows, she'd rather be playing piano.
Steve Prefontaine (United States)
Athletics: Men's 5000 Meters -- Munich 1972
It's easy to forget that one of the most recognized names in American distance running history -- his life story has been told in three separate movies -- never won an Olympic medal. "Pre" won 78 percent of the races he ran, but he made his only appearance at the Games in Munich.
The brash, wild-haired, mustachioed Steve Prefontaine was the youngest member of the final 5000m field in Munich, and he issued the declaration that he'd run the final third of the three-mile race in less than four minutes. Prefontaine burst out into the lead with a mile remaining, and held the lead until there was just a lap and a half left. Finnish legend Lasse Viren and Mohamed Gammoudi of Tunisia caught up, and as "Pre" faded down the stretch, Ian Stewart of Great Britain passed him just 10 meters from the finish line. Viren won with an Olympic record time of 13:26.4, and Prefontaine finished in 13:28.4 -- eight-tenths of a second behind bronze medalist Stewart.
Prefontaine's performance peaked in the years after Munich. He ran the 5,000 in 3:38.1 just a year later -- in Viren's homeland of Finland, no less. He was training for the Montreal Games when he died in a car crash in Eugene, Ore. on May 30, 1975.
 |
Sportswriter 
