Are Participation Trophies Beneficial or Harmful?
Growing up, my life revolved around soccer, I played from age four to age twenty one.
Growing up, when I played soccer I received participation trophies or medals after every season
up until the age of eight years old. When I was younger, I did not realize that I was just being
handed awards for simply participating, instead of actually winning the game or tournament.
After I turned eight years old, I was not given a participation trophy or medal anymore because
the soccer board thought that my teammates and I had to work and compete for the awards after
a certain age, being eight years old. Having to compete for trophies instead of being handed one
has taught me from a young age to work hard and not give up, because great things will come
from working hard. Today, soccer players are receiving participation awards up until the age of
sixteen years old. I believe that children and teenagers should not be receiving participation
medals for sports after eight years old. Children nine years of age and older are more mature and
should be aware that not everyone wins whether that is meaning in a game or in other programs.
The reasoning as to why soccer players after eight years old should not be receiving participation
awards is because they will think that they won, it can increase the chances of players growing
up feeling entitled, and players will not work as hard because they may believe that they will be
given an award anyway. When players are given trophies or medals for participating, they begin
to think that they are winners when really, they were not.
When children play sports, and are handed participation trophies or medals, there is a
good chance that they will believe that they won. This causes a sense of false achievement which
is when children are being misled when they are given awards for participating instead of
winning. This is because the younger children will believe that they have won, when in fact they
did not earn their award. Older soccer players ages nine and up should have a better
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understanding that they did not win so they should not be given participation awards. When they
tell older players around the age of sixteen that they are winners, the younger children could be
teased by the older soccer players because they are bragging for no reason. This causes confusion
for the younger players because they did not actually get an award for winning but instead
received an award for participating. The younger children will not understand the difference
between a participation award and an actual award. Which is why to avoid other kids from
embarrassment soccer players should stop receiving participation awards after age eight years
old. Some may argue that soccer players should be given participation medals up until the age of
sixteen years old because they are not adults yet and should not have to compete against others.
Author Tamar Kremer- Sadlik of the article, Making Meaning of Everyday Practices: Parents’
Attitudes toward Children’s Extracurricular Activities in the United States and in Italy stated that
