Depends on the contest and why I lost.
If it was a fair, well played competition and we both were at our best, then by all means, honor to the victor because the best won. In those kind of competitions, it is a honor to lose because you did your best against someone who happened to be better.
But, if it is a shoddily run, poorly executed competition, biased or fixed, won by cheating or the ilke… oooohhhh…. I get mad but learned how to move on.
I was in a state level pageant when I was 18 and got 1st Runner Up to a girl whose mother was on the board of the state agency that hosted the pageant. The judges deliberated for a hour… I knew well that it doesn’t take that long to tally up points. I cried for a week until I realized I had lost before I even begun—it wasn’t anything I did or didn’t do, just how it was set up. When competitions are set up like that, I don’t give them validity- it’s just an ego-stroking show.