Olympics 2024: anyone watched the breaking?

[Pebbles16]

It was awesome. Like gymnastics without the apparatus and abs to die for

Well, I've seen the clips of Raygun...

As an Australian I'm really concerned about the pile on on Raygun. Clearly she is not at the required standard and should not have been competing but people are being so nasty.

I’ve not seen it for this reason. I don’t mind at all laughing at people but only when they’ve invited me to do so, like a comedian creating a ridiculous character. But a real person? I can’t.

As I’ve not seen it, I’m not even sure what happened. Did Australia not have any other entries (like Eddie the Eagle)? Was she good but it all went wrong on the day? Is it because it’s a new ‘sport’ for the Olympics and no one was sure what the standard would be? 🤷‍♀️

I did catch a bit on the highlights show, but it isn't something that grabs me.

Can't view it as a sport somehow.

She won in a competition for the Olympic place. There appears to be dodgy stuff behind that though as hardly anyone entered. The competition was run by a ballroom dancing organisation.

There are other youtube videos of her 'breakdancing' and nope she is not very good and shouldn't have been given a place.

So bizarre.

It reminds me of Celeste Barber. Surely she's taking the piss?

In a way it seems.. she sees herself as some kind or artist who was making an ironic point and is slightly above it all in terms of theory. I think it was really disrespectful to all the others dancers who have worked hard, as she made it all about her and her attention seeking in order to promote herself as an “academic”.

Yes. It was good and I liked how they took the 'dance off' format. But I understand it's not going to feature in the LA Olympics?

Apparently there's one or two different events added to each Olympics and the hosting city chooses them. LA chose another sport even before this debacle and Brisbane hasn't chosen it either.

I saw this on Wikipedia,

“Gunn ranked 2nd in the Open Bgirl Ranking in 2022[11] and top in the Open Bgirl Ranking in 2023 in Australia,[12] as well as winning or coming in the top three at many Australian breaking events in the previous five to ten years.[13] She competed for Australia at the 2021 World Breaking Championships in Paris, the 2022 World Breaking Championships in Seoul, and the 2023 World Breaking Championships in Leuven, Belgium.[6][3]In 2023, she won the Oceania Breaking Championships, securing a spot for herself in the 2024 Summer Olympics according to the qualifying rules.”

So I have to ask, it seems that she’s won a few things already and has represented Australia before. Does Australia simply have a total lack of other breakdancers (unlikely) or has she performed better in the past?

Just to add there were 53 entries to the Oceania Breaking Championships. So 52 were worse? I’m so baffled by this. The more I read the more baffled I am.

I think to laugh at her is harsh but the performancewas embarrassing for her, the break dancing community and her country. She should have never been allowed to compete, she's clearly not up to even a basic standard in break dancing. There are surely plenty of talented, dedicated, and experienced break dancers in Australia. It all sounds a bit dodgy how she was awarded her place to compete.

Oh I definitely don’t want to be laughing, but I want to get to a stage of understanding. Eddie the Eagle deliberately chose his event as no one else was entering from the UK so he was guaranteed to be the one chosen (I think) but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Other people entered, and she won competitions (plural). And I doubt Oceania/Australia is such a backwater that there are no talented breakdancers there.

Yeah, I'm also finding that situation stomach-churning. Social media pile-ons make me uncomfortable. They're usually way out of proportion to what the victim did (in this case not perform very well) and they're just giving self-righteous people an outlet for their spite.