[jambutty]

Originally Posted by Gayle

Yes, it's losing but it's almost winning!

There are two ways to come second - the first way is to be magnanimous in defeat and be pleased that you were beaten by a better opponent, the other way (as the British female rowing team did) is to weep and wail and say that you should really have been first so you're gutted at being second!

I have some experience of this

To answer your question Gayle, there is no shame in not winning.

Not coming first means that on the day you weren’t good enough to win for whatever reason. If you KNOW that you did your best then just congratulate the winner and remind him/her that if it weren’t for all the other competitors there wouldn’t have been a race.