Barstool Sports

LONDON — After the London Olympics men’s synchronized 10m platform diving final, the headline in The Guardian read: “Tom Daley and Pete Waterfield miss medal after fourth-dive failure.” True, the Great Britain divers botched their fourth-round attempt, likely costing them a medal. But failure is such a harsh term, isn’t it? Especially when you consider (a) the pressure of performing in front of their home nation and (b) that they still finished fourth best in the world. David Mitchell doesn’t think the failure label is fair either. Which is why he’s created his own medals to bestow upon the Team GB divers, and other athletes who finish one place short of the bronze.  Mitchell is a bookshop owner in Cromford, UK, with an affinity for Olympics history. Around the London Games, he came to a conclusion: That the competitions have grown so large, it’s only fair that the field of medalists should be expanded as well. “I remember back in 1960, there were about 84 nations taking part. Now, there are 204. Performance levels have become so much higher. It’s so hard now to get a medal,” he told the BBC. “I thought it’s time this increase in the competitiveness in the standards was taken account of.” So Mitchell is spending his own money to create medals for some athletes who finish fourth, beginning with Waterfield and Daley. They have their names and events on one side; on the other, it says: “In Recognition of your 4th Place Olympic Games 2012.”

I’d like this guy so much more if he were doing this in a snarky sarcastic way instead of actually for real.  I mean that has the potential to be the biggest dick power move in history.  Imagine being some Olympic athlete who just trained for 3.5 years of your life 24/7 in some fake sport and walked away with nothing to show for it?  Then you get home and there’s an envelope sitting in your mailbox with a fake medal and hand written note saying “good job good effort” from some random British dude.   Absolute kick in the dick.