[_DeadFred_]

I like having a physical representation of something I did that pushed myself. In the case of a marathon it's normally a t-shirt. No one makes fun of that. But that t-shirt is 100% a 'participation trophy' but worse, it's literally announcing to the world when worn 'I participated'.

So many anti-participation trophy tough guys wear these participation trophies all the time. Vietnam hat? Participation trophy. Fun run shirt? Participation trophy. Iron man shirt? Participation trophy. Police/military challenge coin? Participation trophy. Facebook picture post of an event you did? Believe it or not, participation trophy.

But then it's given to a kid? Beyond the pale! Ridiculous! Why give them a memory/momento that they played baseball, that they showed up to sparing event, or did a form demo in front of judges. All things very intimidating to kids. I remember showing up to pee-wee football after doing badly in the game. As a kid it was intimidating to show up after doing poorly. That stuff can be as mentally pushing themselves as a marathon for an adult. Such a weird/small/toxic mindset to criticize rewarding that behavior, or thinking the kids that showed up all season for a losing team didn't accomplish anything.

[al_borland]

What I got was a literal trophy, not a t-shirt or something else. A t-shirt or other momento for an event is fine, but a trophy implies a win.

There was a vendor at the tournament selling throwing stars and stuff. I got one of those. That was my momento from the event (which I still have a know exactly where it is decades later). It was something I wanted that I wouldn’t have got had I not pushed myself to show up. Running across that is a fond memory, while running across that participation trophy brings up pretty terrible memories.

I’m not against rewarding pushing yourself for showing up, but as a kid, the trophy was the wrong reward for me, it felt insulting. An event t-shirt would have felt much better.

[UncleMeat]

I got participating trophies from soccer or karate when I was a child. I also got larger trophies when I won events. Even as a freaking eight year old I understood that this was the same as a t-shirt. It was a fun memento from a sports season or a sparring tournament. I do not believe I know a single person who feels negatively about such things.

Surely after years of screaming about participation trophies there should be some evidence that this harmed kids if it were a real thing, right?

[al_borland]

The first trophy I ever got was when my first ever soccer team took first place for the season, so maybe that distorted my view. The only other trophy I ever got was that tae kwon do participation trophy, so I wasn’t collecting these things at every event like t-shirts. A trophy felt like it meant something, which is why the participation trophy felt so humiliating.

I could argue that harmed me. I never entered another tournament after that. The walk to pick up that trophy is a core memory, and one that I didn’t want to relive at any future events. Had I gone, lost, but got a cool shirt, I probably would have been down to get more cool shirts. Had I gone to more, maybe I could have improved and won a trophy that actually meant something.

[UncleMeat]

And I enjoyed my trophies that I got merely for participating even alongside the ones I got for winning. They became memories that I could relive. "Oh, that was the season where my good friend Kevin was on the team."

When people screech about participation trophies being modern degeneracy I want to see actual data demonstrating some real harm. Because from where I sit I see a nice thing being done for children and joy coming from that.