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

[Raygunstun]

( Ok, yes I know I am late to the party on this one).

I'm talking about the Australian women's entry into the breakdancing at the Olympics.

She went out there with absolute confidence, and complete lack of self awareness, and did really terrible breakdancing. It wasn't even really breakdancing. It was like some sort of interpretative dance. Her moves were clunky and slow. they did not flow, the connections between moves were awkward. She was like a competitor in a very, very local competition. And she appeared to have no awareness of this. I know there is a lot of creativity and expression in breaking, but it surely has to be combined with technical skill.

She also appears to have no awareness that the Olympics is about showcasing outstanding physical prowess and technical expertise. Both of which she clearly lacked.

In a way, I admire her confidence, but I don't admire her lack of awareness. I also do not believe she was the best female breaker in Australia.

Part of me feels a bit sorry for her as the break dancing world is clearly her world, but I can't help feeling she got so lost in the theory of the ' expressive' side of breaking she kinda lost sight of the technical skill side. A bit like Rachel Dolezol got so lost in the theory of race being a social construct that she lost sight of the fact you actually need to be black to be black.

She’s not being criticized for being white -the other white competitors who respected the genre have not received any criticism - how do you square that with your belief that she’s criticized for being white?

I was about to explain it all to you again but it’s all there in the thread already. The article linked to about on page 8 s a good explanation, as is the quote @Heber posted. You either have the motivation and cognition to understand the arguments ( even if you disagree with them) or you don’t.

I think it was a perfect storm..

• an academic who may lack self awareness.

It's not just cultural studies, the University sector is pretty bloated with people from all backgrounds who come across as a bit odd in their mannerisms and judgement (very high rates of ND).

• Some ambition in wanting to build a profile, make money from followers. I don't think there necessarily was any huge conspiracy... She and her husband don't come across as super talented but they have been investing in attending lots of events.

If the break dancing community isn't that big, then just turning up regularly probably makes her stand out. Maybe an amount of nepotism if its that small a community. I doubt there's massive immediate financial rewards unless you self-promote hugely (which isn't necessarily easy money). But many people who aren't massively talented do the whole motivational speaker/life coaching thing.

• Like PPs say, choice of wrong outfit and wrong set up. The tight uniform looked ridiculous and with her build and height made her look gawkier.

• I don't really get break dancing, but I agree most of the other performances weren't that gripping. I think the dress sense and bad routine amplified the routine.

• She'll probably make lots of money now from interviews, which is fair enough given the worldwide media drubbing. I agree it doesn't seem fair or proportional, but it makes clicks and views.

She’s posted on Instagram now and she says she’s found all the media on this devastating. I imagine the criticism from within the community will be hard for, and she’s received a lot.

She might be able to monetize it but I imagine that is just going to increase the ill feeling to her within the breaking community, and it does seem that community is genuinely important to her.

Who knows what was going through her head to think what she did was acceptable. She may just have next to no self awareness and huge amounts of arrogance.

I’ve just looked at her instagram and in her posts of battles there she is nowhere near as bad as she was at the Olympics. She’s nowhere near Olympic level, but if she had performed like that she’d just have looked like someone out of her depth rather than someone taking the piss. It was all the awkward, ugly, odd ‘original’ moves she added in to the Olympics ruined her credibility.

I don't know her motivation, but I felt what I saw was disrespectful. Like if you did high jump at the Olympics, you went under the bar deliberately and bounced on the crash mat for fun, or if you threw the shot put ,you sort of stood there and plopped it in front of you. What ever she did or was allowed to do was poor judgement and its a shame someone else ,with more talent wasn't supported to attend.

This is a great post.

I agree totally. For me, the Olympics mean something - it's about people pacing themselves and each other to be the best. Getting to compete is a massive honour and I would expect everyone to respect that.

It's not a place for 'prizes for everyone' or to make a point, or to be 'original' with no skill. There are other platforms if you want to do that. But not the Olympics.

She had no power moves. She doesn't get off the ground much in general.
I can only think she hoped to pick up points for originality, knowing she'd score less in the other four?
Deliberately doing it for attention is a possibility but her insta response seems genuine enough that she hoped to bring joy. It did remind me of the Praise You video, which is why I found Fatboy Slim's post amusing upthread. Alternatively, a Lars von Trier's The idiots reimagining.
However...if you look at the scoring % in her battle rounds

Versus Nicka who took silver, although she lost 0-2 she did pick up +2.2% from Frost and +1% from Jess for...originality.
Versus Syssy, who also beat her 2-0, she did pick up +1.6% from Frost again.
Versus Logistx, who also beat her 2-0, she did pick up +1% from Jess again for originality and +0.8% from Virus. They also gave her +0.2% for originality in the second round. Finally, she picked up +0.8% for vocabulary from Kazuhiro.
Official Reports Breaking (olympics.com) judges' analysis

TLDR: 4/9 judges awarded her some marks for originality.
So her strategy/tactic worked in part.

Oh wait ... this might explain it all!

It was ELAINE all along!

...

Yes, I think this sums it up.

Truthfully I hope she goes the way of Lay Down Sally. Keeps her head down and fades into obscurity via family life and a bit of yoga (breakdance) teaching.

Really? You can’t imagine how you could be overwhelmed by emotion after spending the greater part of your childhood and early adult years in search of a single sporting goal, and you finally achieve it (or miss it)?

I've finally watched this. I can only assume it was epic level trolling. The concept that it was done genuinely is a hard one to get your head round.

No, I think the emotions about sport have got to a ridiculous level. Bring back the amateur olympics. I think quite a bit of the emotion might be linked to how much money they might make.

The Olympics are amateur

The vast majority of Olympians ARE amateur athletes. There is a very select few sports where you can make a proper living beyond the big money league ones (golf, tennis) and the TV friendly sports (swimming, athletics, gymnastics).

Money is very much the last thing on their minds as they cross that finish line.

i reckon a large chunk of the uk Olympians don’t have another job and will be training full time and receiving funding from some sporting body (lottery funding?). I saw an interview with some swimmers who said they trained for 10 hours a day! Such dedication (admirable, but not something I would do ever encourage my child to do).

Err maybe, to be fair I've never seen a man stand in an Olympic event that he is so hopelessly unqualified and lacking the required talent to compete in and then complain that everyone's laughing at him??

Quite. If we did, we'd be questioning his sanity. Sad that we are supposed to accept that a woman who does this is just 'giving it a go'.

At least the first round 100m sprinters from small countries who didn't even have an athletics track had an excuse!

Apparently the judges who selected her knew she couldn’t compare to the other Olympian breakdancers.

I think my latest view is that she genuinely loves breakdancing, knew she was out of her league and decided to go all in on originality. And just badly misjudged what she did. Rather than having any ulterior motive. I think this fits with her comments and life pre Olympics.

I think it went so badly for her as BD is creative, so it’s not like just coming in well behind others in a race. As a creative expression, you are much more exposed and likely to fall on your face. I think it raises issues about sending competitors who are so far from the standard required to events like this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gl34v4r98o

I was watching the darts yesterday and one of the Aussie players had adapted his walk on to incorporate the kangaroo, it was funny and topical. And given it was the New Zealand Masters, the audience pissed themselves laughing.

I can't play tennis but love it, does not mean I should go to the Olympics to do something creative with it and let's say serve into an audience just because I know it will be fun and different. And having it paid by my country so that I can have a blast.

Concluding as pressed post too soon, she may love breakdance but is totally delulu and should have enough self wareness to not turn up. I feel for the community who is now being harassed as a result of her stupidity.

And last but not least, let's remember the worthy people who could do it and who WON- the amazing for Japan! Because sadly everyone is talking about some talentless wannabe pretending to be a breathless fish, but hardly anyone knows who actually won the medal!

Compare the difference! And then try to figure out why someone like Raygun made it there.

Did you miss my last sentence?

I didnt, I was just referring to the paragraph you mentioned she genuinely loves breakdancing. Love is not enough and on her behalf it was a crappy argument that she knew she was shit but wanted to represent Australia; if half of what people say about her qualifying is true, then she was fully aware she would flop to the max and so did everyone, but she would also have known there were better candidates and yet she was the one with a chance to go.