How to Show Off Your Sochi (or more locally earned) Medals, Trophies and Bibs

So, you’re sitting in Sochi, admiring your newly acquired medals, and thinking, “Hmmm… what am I going to do with this when I get home?”

(Or, maybe you are a normal person, who has managed to acquire a few medals on a 5k or a 10 mile race, or a marathon… or maybe podiumed on an ice skating tournament or two, or won last year’s bowling leagues “Most Improved Bowler” trophy.)

So, what do YOU do with your trophies, medals and bibs?  Here are some great ideas, whether you’re still in “I’m earning these all the time” mode, or if your accomplishments are in your past, and you have the mementos of your days of glory.

1) Still in the “gathering medals” stage of life?  You’ve got a growing collection, and your display needs to accommodate that growth.

Obviously, displaying things like your medals, trophies and bibs that you are earning and continuing to earn needs to not only be attractive and motivating, but be able to handle earning more and storing them. Here are a few ideas I found out there that can help with that:

For accommodating trophies and medals, a simple ledge-with-hooks (a coat rack might work, for instance) would be great. Here is one from etsy.com, but you can easily find and make your own:

Another, that lets you accommodate both medals and bibs:

Great for storing bibs in a single display area is something like BibFolio (™) from GoneForARun.com , where you can keep all your bibs in one place, and of course, write your times and results on the back of each.

2) All your medals and trophies are in the past, and you want to display all or only some of them?   Something that showcases everything you’ve done, but doesn’t need room to expand, would work for you.  Some ideas:

Another lets you preserve just the medals themselves in a customized display:

This one works to display medals in a shadowbox, which is always a great tool for displaying three-dimensional mementos:

3) Don’t want a traditional display, but don’t want to get rid of them, either?  Try some of these ideas:

4) Letting go of some (or all) of your medals and trophies, clinging to just the memories of your accomplishments? Well, there are options for that, too.

• Donate to

• “Bling for Bravery“, a program of the Snowdrop Foundation,  distributes finisher’s medals from races from Half Marathons through Ultra Marathons including Triathlons to the children at the hospital to recognize and celebrate their bravery in dealing with cancer.

• Medals4Mettle also accepts finisher medals from half marathons, marathons and triathlons. Medals4Mettle’s mission is to provide an opportunity for endurance athletes and runners to pay it forward by enabling the gifting and awarding of earned medals to others who demonstrate similar mettle, or courage, as they face life’s challenges.

• Contact local schools or youth centers and athletic leagues to see if they are interested in reusing the trophies.

• Repurpose your trophies for family reunions, block parties, field days or a special tradition you want to start in your home for rewarding great behavior.  Many trophy stores will replace the plaque or badge on the trophies for a minimal fee.

• Recycle your trophies and awards, either to a trophy recycling program or contact a local trophy store to see if they’ll take them. (Note:  Google will share results of various trophy recycling programs, but they’re not always taking donations, so poke around and see what is active at the time you’re looking to donate them).

• Recycle them, and find out through earth911.com where to do it near you