to think Rachel 'Raygun' gun has broken the phrase 'Oh for the confidence of a mediocre man'?

She’s not delusional. Her PHd is on culture and specifically had segments on breakdancing. She knew she wasn’t good. She was making a point.

She’s also highlighted how easily circumventable some of the qualification pathways are…

I don’t agree with how she made her point, but she absolutely knew what she was doing. There’s no Liz Truss about her at all.

When I first saw clips I laughed, like properly laughed. Then as I saw more it became less funny & increasingly disrespectful.

Had it been a comedy sketch it would have been absolutely brilliant & everyone would have been in on the joke. As it was, she made her opponent look stupid. Imagine someone turning up at the gymnastics & flopping around for the floor routine whilst pretending to be elite. Or lining up for the pool against the greatest swimmers in the world only to dive-bomb in & do an OTT doggy paddle whilst the other athletes are swimming their heart & souls out.

Breakdancing is hard. It's INCREDIBLY hard & requires extreme core strength & balance. No reason for it not to be taken seriously. She just looks like she's trolling years and years of others hard work & doing it as a middle-class white woman?! It's so tone deaf it beggars belief.

Whatever point she was trying to make was lost when she involved other dancers without their consent on a global platform. A lot of ppl would never have seen breakdancing before & she just made a joke of it.

There is something great about the hilarious entrants. I remember a skater who basically had to hold onto the rails round the rink in the winter Olympics years ago. Then there was Eddie the Eagle. Then there was the swimmer from I think Equatorial Guinea who was the slowest swimmer but won his heat as all the other swimmers did a false start. Loved that one.

Nice that the breakdancing community are supportive. I read this, “Breaking is all about originality and bringing something new to the table and representing your country or region,” head judge Martin Gilian — known as MGbility — said at a press conference. “This is exactly what Raygun was doing. She got inspired by her surroundings, which in this case, for example, was a kangaroo.”

This for sure. I feel so sorry for all the truly talented breakdancers in Australia who could have had the opportunity to genuinely represent Australia and for whom being a contestant, and potential medal winner, could have been life- changing.
Seems on the evidence to be selfish, egotistical and manipulative behaviour from both her and her husband

I actually know someone (an Aussie) who’s a friend of a friend. What happened following the Olympics and memes etc has utterly broken her. I agree the performance was really ropey, but it wasn’t trolling, she was just trying to do something different to stand out and it massively backfired. I feel nothing but pity for her.

think we are going to have to disagree on this, I dare say break dancing does involve skill but I dont get it (a more robust version of that sentiment is available on request)

I didn't watch a lot of the Olympics - more catching up with the highlights. The bits I saw of the skateboarding and break dancing were fabulous. Great to see something a bit different. And interesting about the host country being able to nominate one-off sports.

It reminded me of the Dawn French/ Darcey Bussell sketch. I'd love to see the entire clip of Raygun (French) versus Logistix (Bussell). Can only find short clips and memes of Raygun. You always need one Eddie the Eagle at the Olympics to set off the incredible super human nature of the real competitors.

I was half-expecting Celeste Barber to step forward afterwards and reveal it was all an elaborate joke, filmed with the co operation of the genuine breakers, for a satirical film, along the lines of Jai'me: Private School Girl.

Maybe it still will be...

Well it was never going to be all black men from the Bronx, particularly in the women's section. Maybe breakdancing is a bit different in Australia, bit like the dancing equivalent of Aussie Rules Football.

I think it's a real shame because the Aussie kids who were featured in Dance Life on Amazon prime could have done something amazing.

But it was also hilarious.

im not making any such case, just simply saying that whatever skill is involved, I dont really see it. I watch the olympics to see something extraordinary-no one can possibly think they could do what the skateboarders do without a shed load of-time, effort and talent. breakdancing looks like mostly rolling around on the floor. I could do that.

I think she’s another delusional person who thinks she is the bees knees , someone needs to sit down and give her a few facts or reality .

I thought it was obviously a joke.

I loved the skateboarding and bmx

I also love the ski and board half pipe in the Winter Olympics.

That's true talent. You have to train and train and there's no natural luck with the right type of body to assist you!

I thought she'd said she was making some kind of point about breakdancing not being a sport that can exist with Olympic confines...or something. But looking at other videos now it seems that is her normal style!

I think if there was a global competition at the foxtrot, and an indigenous person was selected even though they were terrible, and then went on to show the whole country up at the international level there would be a lot of objections. And a lot of people suggesting that they had only been selected (over all the fantastic fox-trotters) because they were indigenous (and point out the issues with this). If its true that the selection process/rules effectively excluded much better dancers due to their "lack of privilege" than that is a problem. Its still a problem, even if it wasn't intentional but a result of poorly thought through processes.

Liz Truss levels of self delusion here.

😂😂😂😂 that sums it up perfectly!

I’m not even sure breakdancing is an Olympic sport, but she just looked bizarre. I’m not sure why she entered, 🤷‍♀️

Some of those Skateboarders are incredibly skilled and lots of people love watching it.

I think she’s disgraceful how she set up the governing body and ensured she was selected with her husband as a judge. There needs to be an investigation into how apparently she ensured younger, better talent couldn’t enter selection process. Hardly the Olympic spirit.

she appears to have no shame whatsoever about it. Parading about like some hero

I watched her online having not seen any of the breaking at the Olympics.

My thought was WTF. I'm glad I didn't watch it - this is so bad.

Then I realised that's why she was viral and everywhere 😂

I actually wish I'd managed to catch some of the proper competition now because what I've seen of breaking it's brilliant and they spin on their heads and stuff?