Parents Heartbreaking sight

[gymmiemom]

I don't like when they go all the way out at awards. I think it's worse to be pointed out as dead last rather than be one of the couple without a medal. I know my daughter would be devastated if she was in last place and she just turned 8.

Completely agree. My DD is just a few weeks shy of 8. She usually always places in all events and AA. But there has been one or two meets when she has only placed in a couple of events, and she has handled it just fine. A few weeks ago we were at a meet where they placed 100% out on all events and AA and she was so HORRIBLY embarrassed to place last on vault. She would have been much better off to just have left without a vault medal/ribbon. And she totally deserved last place her vault was a hot mess that day lol. But it didn't need to be pointed out to everyone. She had already suffered the embarrassment of the vault itself.

 

[txgymfan]

I wish meets would do ribbons for all at Level 3 and/or younger than age 7. At level 4 and age 8plus do something special for places 1-3 with smaller medals or ribbons for 4-10. After 10th it doesn't seem like you really "place". It would still be more ribbons than some countries but less than the current standard. More kids would go home empty handed but I think the medals would mean more. I know it won't happen but that's my 2 cents.

 

[Mom2Brats]

When we were in ND, they always did the ribbon thing for (old) levels 4&5 and I really liked it. My gymnast was always a lot more focused on how many blue ribbons she got as opposed to wear she placed, which is honestly what I think a 7 yr old L4 should be focused on (blue for 9.0 or 34.00 AA, etc) Medals were only given out at state which made them especially awesome. I always wondered why so many girls on here seemed to have so many medals.

Then we moved and started getting more medals. One meet we went to would give out a blank plaque to every girl and then they would get the little metal plate for each event with how they placed. The first year, dd was in the last 3 places on everything. She was so mad, wondering why she would want to display that on her wall. Generally speaking, I hate it when they go out all places, even for AA.

Which leads me to my biggest pet peeve: Now that we are getting into higher level optionals (she just competed her first L9 meet, but only floor and beam for a variety of reasons), many girls scratch an event or two and every meet that I've been to STILL goes out all the places. Honestly, this would be the only time that I would think going out all the places for those who competed all the events would be appropriate because, lets face it, that is a major accomplishment in and of itself, but to give a 15th place AA medal to someone who has a 16.75 because they only competed 2 events? Kind of ridiculous. And funny, too, because they might also be wearing a first place ribbon.

Whew! Sorry, that's been bugging me for a while.

 

[Aussie_coach]

I agree that it's just wrong to hand out so many awards. Our comps in Australia will give out only to the top 3 or at the most the top 6 and divisions can easily have between 70-120 kids.

They don't even get a certificate, just the honour of competing. You don't see many leave upset.

To win a medal here is special.

 

[raenndrops]

Which leads me to my biggest pet peeve: Now that we are getting into higher level optionals (she just competed her first L9 meet, but only floor and beam for a variety of reasons), many girls scratch an event or two and every meet that I've been to STILL goes out all the places. Honestly, this would be the only time that I would think going out all the places for those who competed all the events would be appropriate because, lets face it, that is a major accomplishment in and of itself, but to give a 15th place AA medal to someone who has a 16.75 because they only competed 2 events? Kind of ridiculous. And funny, too, because they might also be wearing a first place ribbon.

Whew! Sorry, that's been bugging me for a while.

We make sure in awards that a scratch does NOT get an Award and they are NOT included in AA awards... but what is sad is when a girl scratches one event and places higher in AA than a girl that actually competed AA (I have seen it happen at a meet in which they accidentally awarded AA to a few girls in different levels / age groups that scratched an event or two). One girl who scratched had a 27.20 and the AA girl scored a 27.15 (multiple falls on bars and beam and a not-so-pretty vault)... neither girl was on our team.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Our events don't allow that either. The gymnast must actually get a minimum all around score to place in the all around, (which is impossible without all apparatus). They must also get a minimum score to receive an apparatus award, if no one got the score the would not give out the place.

 

[MaryA]

I know that USAG recommends that meets go out 50%, but it's not required. Last year when DD competed at the Parkette's Invitational at level 7 they didn't go out 50%. I don't remember exactly how far they DID go out... 6 places maybe? Less than 50% at any rate. I don't know if maybe the lower levels went out further. We only sent our optionals.

I remember a time when DD thought that any medal or ribbon was equally wonderful, but likely not as cool as the gift bag. And I remember the first time she won a trophy. It was small... 3rd place. She was 8 and missing half her teeth. We have a picture of her with the biggest snaggle-tooth grin on her face, looking down at that trophy as if it was all of her past Christmas and birthday gifts all rolled into one. In the years since then I have seen her walk away from a meet with a trophy in her hand feeling defeated and walk away from a meet with a single medal around her neck and feel like she had really accomplished something (this past Sunday, in fact). At a certain age, kids know when they've done their best, when they faced really tough competition and when they haven't. Sometimes the medals and/or trophies coincide with a competition that they felt really good about, and sometimes they don't.

Now that DD is a level 8, she sometimes ends up in sessions with level 9's and 10's. Throw in a few falls and scratches and some of the "top 50%" of scores at those upper levels can be pretty low. I have seen teenage girls have to go up and stand on the podium and accept a medal for a score in the 6's and low 7's. There is a lot of eye-rolling by the girls accepting the awards when that happens.

And I agree with the person who asked who the awards are for anyway. Last year at our home meet my DD got her highest score EVER (and it may well be the highest score she will ever get) and it was only good for 4th AA (top 3 got trophies) because of one team that came and swept pretty much everything. As we were heading home I made some sort of uncharitable comment about how maybe that team could stay home next year and DD said, "They were nice, Mom. I'm glad they came." Way to put me in my place! She knew she did a good job. She didn't need that trophy. But I sure wanted her to have it.

Bottom line is, whether we hand out a thousand medals/trophies or just one, by the time the girls hit 10 or so, they KNOW when they did their best and ultimately that's what matters to them.

 

[txgymfan]

Mary A, That's it! I 100% agree!

 

[wnl256]

MaryA: well put.

At our last meet our session had exactly one girl in Xcel Platinum. Of course she placed first in everything. Everyone could see how silly she felt standing up on the podium each time to get her medal.

For years we joked about our daughter having a "trophy curse". Every time she went to a meet where they were giving out trophies for the top 3, she would do much worse than is typical for her and she never walked away with a trophy. It was to the point where my wife and I would walk in to a meet, see the trophies sitting on the awards table, and say to each other "I guess she won't be placing well today."

The only other reference I have for comparison is equestrian competitions. Most of those only award ribbons for the top 6, no matter how many competitors there are. National level competitions may go out to 8, but no further. And for champion awards (similar to an "all-around") they only give two: champion and reserve champion.

 

[kandkfunk]

Now that DD is a level 8, she sometimes ends up in sessions with level 9's and 10's. Throw in a few falls and scratches and some of the "top 50%" of scores at those upper levels can be pretty low. I have seen teenage girls have to go up and stand on the podium and accept a medal for a score in the 6's and low 7's. There is a lot of eye-rolling by the girls accepting the awards when that happens.

This just happened to my level 8 DD a couple weeks ago. When you are in the older age division at level 8, you compete against a lot of event specialists. To make matters worse, we were in the middle of the worst snow storm of the last 5 years and the meet location was about 80 miles away from most gyms. Only 4 girls showed up in my DD's age category and every girl except my DD was competing as an event specialist. We basically knew before the meet even started that she would win AA by default. Sort of comical given the circumstances (we traveled for hours in blizzard like conditions because I wasn't going to forfeit that meet entry fee), but also sort of embarrassing for my DD. She had her lowest score of the season and fell on 3 out of 4 events. Yet, she still won the AA. They even announced her score, which was way lower than the other AA winners from the younger age divisions. We were all laughing quite a bit by the time her awards were over. Although she was a little embarrassed, she did make me buy her a sweatshirt with the event logo and 'First Place Winner' on it. She definitely wasn't as proud of that "win" as her 5th place vault finish the previous weekend against some of the harder competition in the state.

 

[txgymfan]

K, I love that you both had a good laugh and you got her the sweatshirt. She deserved it for having a great sense of humor.

 

[cbifoja]

At our last meet our session had exactly one girl in Xcel Platinum. Of course she placed first in everything. Everyone could see how silly she felt standing up on the podium each time to get her medal.

This happened to my DD this year and I couldn't believe it. I mean, why waste hardware like that???? She certainly didn't think that she truly "won" everything. She's nine, not stupid.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

this happens quite a bit here with the older girls at the lower levels - in the 15+ catagory at a local comp the other day there were 3 girls. We only give out awards to top 3 so the presenting judge just got them to stand there and change places for each event.