Silver

It seems like my teams are always finishing second.

The RedWings were in the Stanley Cup Finals only to lose in the final game, i.e., second place (Silver Medal).

My university (Michigan State University) made it to the NCAA Basketball Final game only to lose to NC, i.e., second place.

My baseball team (Detroit Tigers) was leading the central division of AL by 3 games with 4 to go, only to lose the lead and the playoff game to the MN twins, i.e., second place!

Fortunately I won in the marriage game (I won the Gold with my lovely wife), so I guess I have won all the important "games"!

I was nearly sick. But that's how you have to ride - as if you never want to breathe again [on winning a silver medal at Beijing] Emma Pooley

Jonathan Edwards - he has his faith, his health, his wife and his children, but more importantly, he has his Olympic gold medal. Brian Alexander

If I win the gold I might say nothing and just wander past him, hopefully with some kind of medal - a gold one preferably. I think I might dangle it in front of his face or something. [on how he'd react to a French rival who got him disqualified from a race!] Ben Ainslie

Gold medals aren't made precious by the metal, they are made precious by all the hard work, sweat and tears that the athlete puts in to winning that medal. Dan Gable

LOSS, (n) Privation of that which we had, or had not. Thus, in the latter sense, it is said of a defeated candidate that he "lost his election"; and of that eminent man, the poet Gilder, that he has "lost his mind." It is in the former and more legitimate sense, that the word is used in the famous epitaph:
Here Huntington's ashes long have lain
Whose loss is our eternal gain,
For while he exercised all his powers
Whatever he gained, the loss was ours. (DD)