Felipe Kitadai: IOC Makes Right Decision to Give Brazilian New Bronze Medal

Felipe Kitadai won a bronze medal in judo on the first day of competition in the sport. It didn't register on the sports radar outside of his native Brazil and it appeared he would leave London as an unknown. That changed when a freak accident ended up damaging his medal.

The unusual incident occurred when he decided to take the medal in the shower with him. That decision ultimately led to him dropping it, according to Reuters. Luckily for him, the International Olympic Committee has decided to give him a new one.

Kitadai could have been left out to dry since the IOC isn't under any obligation to give athletes another medal. It would have been a major disappointment to spend four years of his life working to attain a medal only to return home with a broken one.

Why he would even consider bringing the medal in the shower with him is strange, to say the least, but at least he will have an interesting story to tell once he gets back to Brazil.

While the Olympic Committee wasn't forced to give him another medal, it really had no reason not to. After all, bronze medals contain less than $5 worth of actual metal anyway. They are more of a symbolic piece of memorabilia than anything else.

The situation also allows Kitadai to enjoy the 15 minutes of fame it looked like he was going to miss out on originally. It's a perfect example of the story most common Olympians face.

Despite the countless hours of television and live-stream coverage that will take place during the nearly three weeks of competition, most athletes return home without having been noticed by a vast majority of viewers around the world.

The coverage is always titled toward a limited number of major stories rather than a wide scope of every sport. It takes unusual stories like this one for someone like Kitadai, who is among the best in the world at judo, to get noticed.

It's a perfect example to show that many Olympic athletes do all the hard work for the love of the sport, not the fame those in bigger sports receive. And for that reason alone, Kitadai deserves another medal.

He earned it and should get to cherish it forever; hopefully he learned his lesson and keeps it out of the shower this time around.