By Christopher Gabriel, CGabriel.com

During the Olympic Games, a curious phrase that seems as old as the Olympics themselves keeps turning up.  A phrase that consistently finds its way out of the mouths of broadcasters.  You’ve heard it right after a team, let’s say the U.S. women’s gymnastics team, has failed to win a gold medal: “. . . and they settled for silver.”   

They weren’t beaten; they . . . settled.  

Thousands of hours training to be the best athletes they possibly can be.  Endless competition to find a select few that have the honor and privilege of being called, Olympian.  And then, after all the years of hard work, it’s marginalized down to “. . . and they settled for silver.”

Even event color commentators, some of them former Olympians, have made liberal use of the phrase. 

When you’re blessed to make the Olympics, are you really settling when you win a silver or bronze medal?  The overwhelming majority of Olympic athletes don’t win medals, much less have a realistic chance of competing for one. 

Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the International Olympic Committee, once said “The important thing is not to win, but to take part.”   You almost get the idea broadcasters believe de Coubertin actually said, “The important thing is not to settle, but to win.”

It all begs the question: Could you handle the kind of pressure these athletes face? 

In the case of this year’s U.S. women’s gymnastics team, although they were talented they were not the clear favorite to win the team competition.  Many believed this would be China’s year.  Throw in a few key injuries to the U.S. and the odds against them winning gold began to add up. 

But it wasn’t injuries that beat the U.S.  It wasn’t mistakes that beat the U.S.  It wasn’t even the judges, often quite suspect in gymnastics.  No, it was China, pure and simple.  They were brilliant, and it’s doubtful the U.S. would have won even if team captain Alicia Sacramone wouldn’t have had one of the most difficult nights of her competitive life.

Sacramone’s fall off the balance beam left the U.S. a full point behind China going into the final event, the floor exercise.  Another fall by Sacramone along with all three U.S. gymnasts going out of bounds and it was all but over. 

But to suggest the U.S. settled for silver is to imply the Americans surely would have won gold had they not made their mistakes.  That’s an insult to what the Chinese team accomplished.

Sacramone and her teammates came to win gold.  It was a reasonable expectation because they’re that good.  But they came up short.  However, when short means silver that’s not too shabby.

How many young girls watching them from living rooms around the U.S. would have given anything to be in Beijing’s National Indoor Stadium simply competing? 

If we are to believe silver or bronze means settling, is the converse better?  Would not winning a medal at all be preferable to the notion of settling?  Of course that’s ridiculous.  But when that phrase keeps popping up, you begin to wonder.

I heard several talk radio hosts suggest Sacramone “choked.”  Did she?  Maybe, although I think that’s a bit harsh.  Pick a sport and name its greatest athletes.  They’ve all had bad nights.  In this case, her bad night came on the biggest stage on the biggest night of her life. 

To talk about the pressure these athletes face is one thing; to fully comprehend it is impossible unless you’ve been there.  Unless you’ve lived the moment, you don’t know how you’ll react both emotionally and physically.  They train their bodies and their minds to be flawless but in that singular moment, they’re still human.  Stuff happens.  That’s life. 

I’m tired of hearing that an athlete or a team settled for silver or bronze.  You get what you get, and that’s as much to do with your competition as it is what you bring to the event when it’s crunch time. 

When a team sustains a key injury on their way to the Super Bowl, the BCS championship game, etc., oh well.  Injuries are a part of the game.  The “if we’d not lost him, we would have won” mentality is ridiculous.  It’s moot because at the end of the day, we really don’t know what would have happened had Mr. Injury been there. 

Similarly, we really don’t know if the U.S. women would have won gold had Sacramone had a great night and all three Americans been flawless on the floor exercise.   

Of course, there is an exception to all of this.  If you use the settled phrase when talking about swimming against Michael Phelps, fair enough.  Anyone getting in the pool against this guy has no shot.  At all.  Everyone else is settling . . . for anything.

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