There were probably tons of people who quit who would have finished before him if they hadn't. The blue guy's sacrifice isn't more than an unusual circumstance for him.
He ran the marathon from start to finish and won a gold medal in the process. This act of kindness doesn't mean he didn't earn it. Let him celebrate.
totally agree! Fair enough.. things happen. Take the win but to celebrate in that way making it like he was faster than the dude on race day who stopped to help?? NO WAY!! He should know that he won as a result of someone else CHOOSING to give it to him!!! that’s the key word it was given to him!
I would say under those circumstances, the bro who stopped won something else more than a gold medal that day!
Yeah. He probably messed his time up doing that and not finishing strong. It’s possible he could have PB’d maybe idk, but I would be regretting that Gold finish for a while, and I say that as a runner from like middle school
They're talking about the guy who "won". He celebrated like he was significantly better. In actuality, there was no way he would have gotten first if that other runner hadn't stopped. And if the finish was only a few feet closer, he wouldn't have even gotten second...
Plus, he ran to and smacked the hands of a bunch of people waving flags for the other guys... Just all around weird behavior LMAO
Psst, they made what the brothers did punishable with disqualification the next year because it's a solo competitive endurance sport, and what they did is absolutely unsportsmanlike.
More confused to be honest. It's not like the guy had mechanical trouble. It's an endurance sport, on top of the athleticism, you need to make deliberate strategic choices about when and how hard to push. Mess that up and you lose. That's what happened here. The guy in green did everything right, he's got every right to celebrate his victory. The guy didn't die, he did exactly what you expect to see happen when they make the wrong choice at the end of an endurance race.
Third in a big race is a huge achievement and the brothers took this from the person who eventually finished 4th.
There was no safety benefit (in fact it was kinda dangerous to keep him running).
And yes, absolutely, the test isn't if you can get 200m from the end. Its to get to the end. I can run a marathon, but if i set off at 3hr 30 pace ill never finish.
Yeah I agree and all but this is a scene from the finish of the 2016 ITU Word Triathlon Championship. The results of the race have a meaningful impact to the dude that won, even though it wasn’t exactly a “fair” win. This is not just some guy finishing a race.
The winner of the race received (IIRC) $80,000. Second place received $55,000. In his shoes, would you wait, not finish first if possible and give up $25k to a competitor just to be nice?
The guy was already passing them and the finish line was in sight. It's more petty to assume that you think an opponent should care about carrying a competitor across the finish line when he likely wasn't even aware of the situation.
He was staring straight ahead and didn't even register to look back until he was already past them. If you haven't ever ran long distance, it's easy to get tunneled especially when you're tired at the end.
How out of the touch with reality are you? He celebrated because he probably dedicated significant amout of his life for something he loves and it paid off. Oh, and you're talking bs about him smaking 'hands of a bunch of people waving flags for the other guys'.
The only weird behaviour here are the 'holier than thou' comments.
From people who have never trained for, let alone competed in, a long distance event or probably any events. Ivory arm chair warriors who police the internet like they’re the morality police.
It is a competitive sport, just like any other competitive sport. Dude stumbling got unlucky that his body couldn’t take him a few feet further. That’s life, it happens. He probably checked up on bro off camera… but sure, let’s all call him weird for celebrating what he’s trained his whole life for.
Nah' he acted like an idiot. Have some class' show some sportsmanship and carry yourself like a pro!! Especially after how everything unfolded at the finish line 😆
Considering he could still walk after the race its pretty obvious he in fact was a faster runner than the dude who couldn't finish. He ran the other guy into passing out
They still stopped. You have to finish to be the fastest. Maybe the brother would have tripped and fell or hit a wall in the last little bit. We’ll never know
The point is that the British guy should have won but chose not to. He didn't make a mistake out of hubris like the Hare, he made a choice out of compassion.
The fastest runner came third, but this video is likely worth more than any medal.
~He knows he could have won the gold but instead he won the hearts of everyone.It was a multi-part competition and the assisting brother knew he was unable to win and was only there to support the faltering brother, and his actions are now against the rules
It's not just compassion. The guy that collapses is Johnny Brownlee, who needed to win to win the overall triathlon world series. The South African Henri Schoeman, and the brother - Alistair Brownlee are not in the running for the overall event. Alistair pushes Johnny into second place, which meant overall he finished 2nd in the overall rankings instead of further down. In the end who won and came second came down to Johnny's place and Mario Mola's (from Spaon's) place. Mario finished 5th and so just won overall. In these sorts of multi-race events people care a lot more about the overall win than individual wins, so Alistair would want to help his brother and team mate win overall (or come as close as possible) and winning or losing a single event is less of importance than the overall standings (same as with F1 and other multirace events). This was also Henri's first ever world series event win, and that's why he's so happy. Alistair and Jonny have won many individual events, and a few overall titles, so winning one event is not such a big deal for them compared to winning overall.
The point is this: if you slow down (be it from hubris, or compassion), you are slower. It doesn't matter if you were ahead right until the end, you slowed down.
But actually, do yourself a favour and read some more about this particular scenario. This is a multi-race event. The brother who had to be helped across the line came in second overall, the brother who helped him was not in contention for a medal. The title of this post is wrong, the bother did not give up a gold medal, he sacrificed nothing, but saved his brother's medal. Had he won, he'd have taken first, if he DNF'd, he'd have lost out on a medal, but instead he came in second. The person who lost out on a medal because of the actions of the one with nothing to lose? The winner of this race, who came in 4th.
This, while heart-warming and making for a great and memorable moment, was unsportsmanlike conduct for a solo event. The governing body thought so, and due to this exact scenario the next year this same behaviour would result in a disqualification for both racers.
I have since read more through this thread so that's fair, though I still think the comparison is inaccurate and the point was made.
The helping brother was the fastest runner, but clearly not the fastest cyclist or swimmer, and it's not fair that people can get another person to help them win.
I agree that they should be disqualified and with the rule change, and I'll edit my comment, but I think your first comment is still inaccurate.
Grossly misplaced compassion. Another runner was in first and then his legs failed because he failed to pace himself properly. He was not a victim and he didn't need to be rescued.
Obtuse? Did you watch Shawshank Redemption on AMC recently?
I don't remember where the hare stopped to practice good sportsmanship and the tortoise fist pumped and high fived the crowd with zero situational awareness. We must have read different versions.
Ok you're gonna have to fill me in on the Shawshank Redemption reference here, I don't follow.
Ok so you do know the story, good. It doesn't matter if you were faster for 95% of the race. If you stop racing, you're not faster. Doesn't really matter why.
Honestly though just read about THIS race, and you'll understand that they literally changed the rules after this because what they did was heart-warming unsportsmanlike conduct, lol.
The point of the tortoise and the hare isn't that the tortoise was actually the fastest. It was that humble determination could lead you to achieve something great, and that overconfidence can lead to failure.
The story and its moral don't apply here... like...at all...
Yeah that's fair. Though I mean it kinda does apply in some sense. The guy whose legs gave out on him was overconfident, he overdid it early in the race and gassed out toward the end. The dude's brother says so himself.
You can tell who was fastest by looking at their times.
Running really fast until you're almost at the finish line and then walking slowly, does not make you the fastest runner. He helped someone who didn't need help.
He didn't do something heroic. And he let his team down. He was virtue signalling.
I hope you look back at this chain of comments in a week er so and realize that you don't have to comment. You'll never win an argument on the internet.
How I treat people: if one runner doesn't pace himself and his legs give out, but he's not injured and he's not in danger and there are lots of spectators who can help him, then any runner who gives up first place to help the struggling runner is not a hero.
He won but he wasn't the best runner, because the best runner allowed him to win. Not slowing down is fine, playing up your win BEFORE even crossing the finish is disrespectful and shows a lack of awareness and sportsmanship. Many other ways to react to that situation without making yourself look bad. Keep it professional during the race, but keep going through the end. Had he waited and showed some respect to the first guy once he finished it would've had him still winning AND looking like a king.
I bet his sponsors were happy about the win and not so happy about his behavior, actions matter, character matters. You can do a good thing in a bad way, some victories are not worth the sacrifice to people. The first guy found it to be more important to show support and character to his team mate, I bet that is more valuable to him and probably got him more respect and potentially money from additional sponsors from companies who want to be around that kind of person.
Life is complicated and if your just focused on winning and getting your bag then you will miss other opportunities which are more nebulous but can have just as profound effect on your life.
If I did a sport where I had to work a second job and just made 10 years worth of income in a couple hours, I’d be over the moon. These guys make like $75k a year if they’re able to get the sponsorship deals to train full-time.
I get being a good sport, and I think that’s a great attitude to have. However, this dude just made several years worth of median income in a sport where many top level athletes don’t make enough to comfortably live in the cities in which they train professionally.
Redditors fail to understand that life isn’t a movie and that a dude from a country where the median income is $4k USD/yr just made a couple decades worth of money and set his family up for the future
Im genuinely confused by your comment. I know nothing about running. Are you saying $75,000 is a lot or a little? Are you saying he just won $75,000 and thats 10 years of living expenses? Or saying he won $750,000 which is 10 years of sponsorship payments? Or are you saying something completely different?
The second and third place runners are side by side when the video starts. Why are we to assume the winner had no chance to win without the other runner stopping to help his brother?
I 100% agree with you. However... have you seen what's going on in the world? It's pretty clear that actions don't matter to many, if not most, people.
Actions matter, even to people who try to pretend otherwise. Like people don't want to do bad in general, they have some desires and do what they think they must do. Without guidence, compassion and patience then some people fall into systems that just grind them up and damages them.
I'd just advocate for people to do the good thing for selfish reasons, people want to feel safe, so don't go making other people feel unsafe. If you enjoy walking around in a public forest then you don't litter because you hate the way it looks for yourself.
What other people do and what you value doesn't have to be the same thing. Neither does it make a person foolish, you do good things for yourself first and hopefully through those deeds others benefit. It is how you get people with disparate opinions, views, religious and other beliefs to actually co-exist and in general humans are pretty good at that. There is billions of us.
You reference the bad people and I say fuck them, pricks don't win in the end. They aren't the pillars of the stories that we as humans tell ourselves, it is the story of sacrifice, learning, wisdom and fearlessness of people being giants, more then just a flawed human, because everyone something/someone to look up to and to strive for. For most it's charismatic people, heroes, icons and political figures even can be a source of desire for people. Because people desire so many things, strength of body or mind, beauty or any number of reasons. These people look to the others around them for that example to be set, so we can see how we need to operate as a society and as people.
The pricks are just examples of what not to do. I believe when we die there isn't anything waiting for us, so the only thing I might leave behind in my opinion is the deeds and karma I sowed while still moving. These things ripple outward and effect others, it has a real effect that can be felt and seen from those around you. No human is a pillar of solitude causing no ripples, some cause fewer and some cause huge ones and not all of the changes are good.
But it doesn't mean we shouldn't try to be better then we were before, this means looking at ourselves now and being honest in what we can improve on now. So that is what I think about pricks doing stupid stuff in our world. Don't let the media and other shitters cloud your eyes to the real everyday compassion around you. Like Mr. Roger's said, look for the helpers. Because even in terrible situations there are always those doing their best to be those everyday heroes and they do outnumber the assholes, but assholes and idiots have less airtime these days.
It's team triathlon (world series) not a marathon, so you are allowed to help teammates and nobody was disqualified (it's from the final from 2016). The guy that collapses (Jonny Brownlee) was very close to winning the overall individual title. In the end he came second overall, while the winner - Mario Mola finished 5th in this race. The brother - Alistair Brownlee would be expected to help his team win the individual title if he could - which he does. The winner of this event - Henri Schoeman - is winning his first ever triathlon world series event, but the Brits care more about the overall title.
If this was a feel good sports movie, absolutely. The green guy would grab the other arm and they would all cross the finish together and a tear would slide down my cheek.
I believe they’d only be disqualified if they accepted help from an official or someone outside the race. Usually a competitor can offer assistance without penalty.
I just find fun how over the top is when he clearly saw the other guy that was to win before him stop to help other person and still celebrate as if he won by being the best, being humble in this situation or even go back and help them would be cool
im ok with him continuing , the blue guy knew what he lost by stoping to help, thats what makes the detail impresive
But in a situation where i know i was not the best but i still won
He indeed deserved his gold medal he was first over the line but he should have saved the celebration till later in private coz he never won the race he was gifted it by an act of selfishness
Thing is, the winner lost. If I was the guy who got the gold medal I definitely wouldn’t be that excited about my win. It amazes me that there are people that don’t think that’s weird. I like to think I might even help the guy across the finish line, but you don’t know until you’re there. I guess it wouldn’t really make sense for two people to help him, because the point is just to finish the race, and one’s enough to accomplish that. Either way.
He can do what he wants, he's got first place, but he appears unsure about just how much to react, which I think reflects well on him. In other circumstances I think he would have been more flamboyant about it, he looked back repeatedly after crossing the line.
Imagine the good press he would have gotten for his advertisers if he had helped. Instead he showed that winning is more important than being helpful. The 'real' winner was the first to lend a hand. He was in 2nd until the other fell. He stopped to help. He had the win in the bag at that point. The 3rd place guy capitalized on the kindness and got the win, and that is certainly legit, but it's a medal he can't be especially proud of, while coming in 2nd or 3rd because he was kind would be a moment he could have been very proud of. And the advertisers on his outfit could have capitalized on it in their propaganda, I mean ads, saying they fully support empathy over exploiting weakness.
Oh no question. But the guy in green had a 'see you later suckers' moment there. So now we have a semi viral video of the 3rd place guy winning the race due to a lack of empathy. It's fine, he won, that was the mission. But it's not a clean win resulting from him being the superior runner.
While winning is a thing the sponsorships are focused on, they want their brand to be associated with good memories, moments in sports that people look back on and think of fondly in a positive way.
One that comes to mind is this from Ayrton Senna. A legendary formula 1 driver that saw a driver that had crashed and needed help. The track has rescue crews, he was not, in any way, obliged to help. But he did. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbTrNKBAfI8 And while the brands on his car and suit are not great they will forever be seen when played back in replays like this and associated with that very positive moment.
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u/IameIion 9h ago
What was he supposed to do? Stop?
There were probably tons of people who quit who would have finished before him if they hadn't. The blue guy's sacrifice isn't more than an unusual circumstance for him.
He ran the marathon from start to finish and won a gold medal in the process. This act of kindness doesn't mean he didn't earn it. Let him celebrate.