A Reversal on Medal Stand

In a break with tradition, the International Olympic Committee voted Thursday to reverse the order in which medals are awarded.

At the Salt Lake City Winter Games in February, medals will be awarded in this order: bronze, silver, gold.

Since 1896, when the Modern Games began, the IOC has handed them out like so: gold, silver, bronze. The 1-2-3 approach enabled the gold-medal winner to revel in singular glory atop the podium for a moment or two.

The change will be reviewed after the Salt Lake Games to see if it ought to be made permanent.

The reversal was sought as a means of “fully celebrating the achievements of the bronze- and silver-medal winners,” and to “bring a crescendo to the celebration of the gold medalist,” said Salt Lake Organizing Committee President Mitt Romney, who had pushed the move. The IOC’s ruling executive board approved it by a 13-2 vote.

The board’s action came after the IOC’s athletes’ commission also endorsed the reversal.

Former volleyball player Bob Ctvrtlik, now an IOC member and a winner of gold with the U.S. team in Seoul in 1988 and bronze in Barcelona in 1992, said debate on the issue was heated within the athletes’ commission.

“It was a tug of war between history and tradition, and creativity,” he said. “This gives a little more attention to the silver and bronze medalists, and at the same time it doesn’t detract from the gold medalist. It leads to a little more buildup to the gold medalist.”