Going back to the ops question about gym meet scores and rewards, I find it interesting she was writing about a parent who rewarded her child when she "doesn't medal" at a meet and is sad. Rewards in this situation are (I think) fairly rare. And to me, that is an entirely different situation than rewarding for success at a meet, although obviously that may be problematic too (imo.)
But here is my take on the issue of rewards (coddling?) when a child has done poorly and is upset. A gift at that point may make the kid stop crying, but what is it teaching them? To me, that reinforces in the kid's mind that there their worth is based on whether or not they got a medal at a gym meet, also it could instill the idea that they will be rewarded for crying or being upset. (And that is something I learned not to reward for when my oldest was a toddler.)
Now by reward, I mean cash or a gift. Of course, it is appropriate to comfort (with hugs, kind words) an upset child.
I think most of us have competitive kids who want to do well, (why else would they be in this ridiculously hard sport) so they are likely to feel badly when they do not. I have found I need to keep my kids focused on the positives- first off, medals are not a good measure of how well a child did at a meet. Instead, look at scores- any improvement? What events, skills, did they improve on? Did they stay focused even after getting a bad score or falling? Did they show a brave face after messing up? Etc. I have yet to see my kids compete (and they have had some pretty terrible meets) where there was no positives to take from it. If a kid actually does royally screw up at a meet, it is not like they wanted to. And in the unusual circumstance a kid WAS goofing off or whatever and that led to a poor score, well, you would not want to reward misbehavior at a meet.
We allow our kids to express their feelings of disappointment, but only to an appropriate level and at an appropriate time (in private, and reasonably quietly.)
As far as rewards in general, I think there is no one right way. First off, age matters. You have a 6 year old who is really too young to put things in perspective, who is upset they did not get a medal? You know, really, fine to get her a little treat. (This is also why I think "participation medals" are perfectly fine for the really little kids.)
Personally no way would I reward with money or gifts for doing well at a meet, (if they needed rewards for that I can think of a many things I would prefer to use all that gym money for.) We homeschool, so the question of rewarding for grades is irrelevant. But we do "pay" our kids to do their chores (that payment is also their (very small) allowance.) I certainly read many experts who said not to do that, but it has worked well for us as in, the dang floor gets vacuumed and the bathrooms cleaned!
Going out to eat after meets? We do that because it is part of the fun and meets should be fun. The kids do not think of it as a reward, it is a reward for me because then I do not have to cook.
FWIW I have seen parents try to do this and frankly I find it annoying and more than a little crazy gym mom. I also don't pay for grades- they are an expectation in our house. I have a job, their father has a job and we are expected to work hard and perform at our best. My kids have a job too- school- and they are expected to do their best at all times. If the best they can do is a C, that is fine, but if they get a C and don't give full effort, there are consequences. (just as if I didn't give full effort at my job, I would have consequences from that!) Our household in general focuses heavily on effort and work ethic. 
Cause hey, she still went for all of her skills and got through the routine.
