No, though he may be considered by some as a wonderful guy in all other respects, without a gold medal he is not an “olympic champion.” Just more of the “everybody wins” mentality which creates big problems in dealing with reality.
Losing is the new winning.
I am seeing a lot of that from the US team - it’s embarrassing.
“Well, I came and did my best.”
“I’m proud of how I did.”
“I left it all out there.”
Yeah, but you didn’t WIN.
If you have no humility from losing, how do you get any better?
I hate the figure skating now. Since they changed the way they score it you can fall down and still win a medal?!?! That’s ridiculous. At least in the snow sports if you fall down you’re out or your score reflects it. I don’t think medalists should be able to fall and still win.