I disagree. Sports are not a required experience to growing up and turning into an adult. There are plenty of win/lose situations that present themselves in life otherwise. I suspect (and it can probably be proven pretty easily) that the majority of people on the planet did not grow up playing sports, and they've turned out fine.

I tend to agree with RMAC757 that at a young age, getting a kid out to actually participate in something is the more important aspect of the whole experience. With that said, there certainly comes a point when there needs to be competition in competitive sports. Without competition, then there isn't really a point. Also, in the big picture, a participation trophy is still more than the kids who weren't on the team got. Sure they just showed up, but they showed up when they didn't have to. I also like the way newracer handled this with giving a token of participation that wasn't a trophy. However, it could be argued that participation trophies at a young age will actually increase competition later. What I mean is, when you start out getting a trophy for showing up, there should come a time when a trophy is still available, but only for winners. Kids will have a taste for trophies if you will.

In short, participation trophies should stop being part of the sport when score starts being kept and part of the game. Having a kid around the age of starting sports, I think K-3 should be about as far as participation trophies go. After that, the kids are old enough to keep score and remember game highlights themselves.