While much of the Olympics coverage focuses on gold medals, there is far more to athleticism than winning or losing. Samsungs’ Openness Medal campaign champions and celebrates the athletes who find courage to overcome challenges and confront failure.

The Openness Medal campaign, created with BBH London, is designed to drive connection and show the stories behind the athletes who compete in the Olympics without too much focus on the outcome.

Born from the insight that Gen Z is more interested in the stories behind the athletes than the actual competition, the campaign uses social media to tell the stories behind Team Samsung Galaxy (TSG) athletes.

Social media videos see athletes including Sky Brown (Skateboarding, Great Britain), Ugo Didier (Para Swimming, France), Heung-min Son (Football, South Korea), and Yeri Kim (Breaking, South Korea) share their stories. Each athlete is awarded a transparent medal celebrating their willingness to open up and be transparent about their journey, their challenges and failures as well as their incredible achievements.

“We all fail. We all make mistakes. We all break. Winning is a tiny part of the journey. The Openness Medal is here to help normalise failure, overcome challenges, and hopefully inspire more young people to be open to sport and to not give up.” says Neil Clarke, Creative Director, BBH London.

As part of the campaign, Samsung is encouraging Gen Z audiences to share their own stories of openness to amplify engagement around “Open always wins.” Samsung has created an Openness Medal TikTok Challenge which features a digital medal and TikTok branded effects where making simple gestures will create an interactive medal filter. The TSG athletes will take part in the challenge on their own social media channels and encourage audiences to get involved.

The transparent medals will be awarded during the Olympic and Paralympic Games to athletes, coaches, parents, school teachers, fans and anybody who embodies the spirit of Openness.

Shifting the focus to the journey rather than the outcome, Samsung’s Openness Medal gives athletes and audiences the opportunity to share in sport and celebrate achievements outside of competition.