When a bronze medal can be better than a silver

In Why Bronze Medalists Are Happier Than Silver Winners Jason G. Goldman writes that studies show that often the bronze medalist seem happier than the silver medalists:

Psychologists Victoria Medvec and Thomas Gilovich of Cornell University, and Scott Madey of the University of Toledo think that this phenomenon can be explained by counterfactual thinking. This means that people compare their objective achievements to what “might have been.”

The most obvious counterfactual thought for the silver medalist might be to focus on almost winning gold. She would focus on the difference between coming in first place, and any other outcome. The bronze medalist, however, might focus their counterfactual thoughts downward towards fourth place. She would focus on almost not winning a medal at all. The categorical difference, between being a medalist and not winning a medal, does not exist for the comparison between first and second place.

It is because of this incongruous comparison that the bronze medalist, who is objectively worse off, would be more pleased with herself, and happier with her achievement, than the silver medalist.

Goldman then goes on to note a study of the Judo competition in the 2004 summer Olympics that had similar findings. However, I'm not sure that other factors don't come into play in sports like Judo. In Judo judoka have to win the bronze medal contest to claim the medal. So a bronze medalist has by definition just one their last bout. By contrast, the silver medalist has just lost their last bout. I'm sure that has an effect.