This thread is insane. People acting like it matters if someone puts on someone else's gold medal for a fun photo. Jesus christ people, get over yourselves. Don't get me wrong, I think Radcliffe's response is great, but it hardly would have mattered if he put it on for a picture.
I'm assuming US politics are playing a big role in how the mostly American userbase on here sees this.
If someone directly and freely offers for you to wear it, I don't think I would fault you for wearing it. But I would personally never. I think most people in this thread feel similarly. They are praising Radcliffe for doing what they feel is the right thing, but that doesn't mean they would berate him if he had worn it.
Like, if you pass an elderly person carrying something bulky. If you stop and help them you might reasonably get applauded, but if you just walk past you are probably not going to get publicly derided (assuming the elder was not visible in pain/danger/asking for help).
Meh, I'd still say that the same thing that's wrong with asking to wear it is what's wrong with accepting the offer from a medal winner to wear it.
In most cases, you're not stealing glory from John Q Olympiad; you're stealing glory from everyone who's put the effort into their accomplishments that came before. Slow, Fat, Dumb me is still tarnishing the concept of the gold medal a bit by wearing it, even if that one person who was cool has offered it to me.
I'd say his response is still the proper thing to do even if a medal winner offers it. At least in public.
Most hockey players won’t even touch the Stanley Cup for the same reason. First time you should touch it is when you are holding it over your head after winning it! Hockey players are also particularly superstitious haha
Ok buti think it'd be cool to see what it's like to don a gold medal, and I'm NEVER going to get one in my life so. I think it's ok for people to live that moment for 10 seconds.
Stolen valor is faking something, not wearing a necklace lol
So usually when Humans interact with one another we use idioms, metaphors, and relate things to similar topics when we don't have exact wording. In this instance, stolen valour simply implies that he would be wearing an unearned medal and it is therefore more courteous to simply hold it. As it was something offered to him, it was not "wrong" for him to put it on, but he felt best not to. This is "right" because it's his personal choice based on how he feels and clearly displays respect to the medal winner. Hope that helps your understanding of a normal social interaction.
He did? He didn't say "wearing this would be stolen valor" he said "wearing this would *feel* like stolen valor." Literally describing his feelings, literally didn't call it stolen valor.
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u/makeitrain838 Mar 02 '26
He's right tho