Until this Olympics, I was unaware that two bronze medals were handed out in each boxing weight group. I think this is a bit unfair to other sports.
The reasoning is that boxers get hurt more than those in other sports. With the four semi-finalists, the losers of the first bout would fight the next day if it were another sport. The winners would fight in two days for the gold and the silver. Thus there is extra time to recover for the gold and silver medalists.
I think this is just a naked medal grab by the boxing arm of the Olympics. You could have the losers box at the exact same time as the gold medal match. There is no rule saying that this couldn’t happen. Or, you could have the bronze medal match after the gold medal match.
So I say there should be two bronze medals in every sport if this kind of loosey goosey attitude toward bronze medals keeps up. For events that decide a 3rd place and 4th place easily, just put a 3 on one of the two bronze medals and give it to the 3rd place finisher.
Indeed let’s look at boxing even more. There are 13 weight classes (7 mens, 6 womens). Why can’t 13 medals be available for team sports, for instance. Perhaps in hockey, you could give an award (gold, silver and bronze) for the best player from each position. Soccer may be the most bloated sport, with 11 positions, hockey would have 6, baseball 9, and basketball 5.
Speaking of beat up, we could add American football to the mix. This sport is largely not played internationally, despite an almost identical game played in Canada. It’s traditional to let the teams have 1 week to recover between games. As such, only three games could be played by each team during the time of the Olympics, meaning that only six nations could compete. The first game could eliminate the worst two losers. For the second game, the biggest winner would go against the best loser and the other two winners could go against each other. The combined results would let it be decided who is in the gold medal game and who is in the bronze medal game. American Football would have the most positions, 22. Which would lead to the most medals of any sport if I were to have my way.
Then, maybe with all these medals for team sports, you could get rid of 3 on 3 basketball. But wait a second. I am about giving out the most medals possible. Let’s have 3 on 3 football, soccer, hockey and baseball as well!
Of course the boxers may just threaten the rest of us if boxing doesn’t get an extra medal than the rest. Indeed, they might also threaten us with the judo, wrestling and taekwondo competitors who also get a double bronze. But there are many more athletes that don’t get the extra bronze. The others can take them due to numbers. More medals for everyone!
