It's still not as athletically impressive as the others I saw, but much more than I was led to believe from the clips making fun of her.
There were a few moments where it looked like she actually had breakdancing experience compared to the "highlights" I've been seeing. Still, she looked goofy af.
It felt like a modern interpretive dancer was given a printed brochure about breakdancing an hour before the show and told to 'wing it'.
She's got strength, balance, timing, and control, but it's like.... she's Eileen Dancing it?! Like she'd kind of have to do that on purpose if she's ever even once seen a breakdancing video.
Honestly, her performance was amazingly memorable. I can't remember the other routines the others did that's for sure.
I’ve seen much, much better from dudes on the side of the street with a piece of cardboard.
It’s sad how much hate she’s getting for this :(
Did we watch different videos?
I don't. A lot of people make a huge mental, physical and economical effort to be there and she just thinks it's playtime? She didn't make fool of only herself but of all the professional that fought for break to be in the olympics. She an idiot
She would have known what the impact would've been, she literally studied the sport. She must have seen many female Australian breakers who were leagues above her in terms of skill. Yet she thought she was worthy to represent her country, hate is a strong word, but she and the org that put her there should be heavily criticised.
I think what the snooty professional athletes and organisers need to remember is that the general public don't really care who is the fastest woman to run 250m through mud while wearing a rucksack. You can dedicate your whole life that and for the majority of us it doesn't matter a jot.
But somebody falls on their face or nearly drowns in the pool, and people will see that because it's more newsworthy than "man jumps 1cm further than other man".
Eddie the Eagle. The Jamaican Bobsled team. Eric the Eel. These are the names that stick in the memory. We'll only remember winners if they win a ton of medals, like Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps or Simone Biles.
Who even won the women's Breaking gold medal? I'd have to look it up if I wanted to know. But we know who Raygun is for better or worse. So who's the real winner here?
probably got free healthcare while she was there though
I mean, I get what you're going at, but she does hold a PhD in cultural studies, and she did put in a lot of effort to get in. It's very possible, too, that, in an arena so different than what she's used to, she choked. A lot of the hate goes above and beyond with death threats and claims she should kill herself, and nobody deserves that.
For how goofy it was, and the memes that have come from it, she's earned my respect and thanks for bringing a little, albeit unintentional, joy to my life.
You don't what?
Nah, some of the background on this I saw had her husband being on the selection committee and forcing the committee to choose her.
(Rumors that Raygun’s husband was on the Olympic breaking selection committee have ultimately been dispelled by the Australian Breaking Committee, and historically, Raygun ranked first or second on Australia’s list of nationally-ranked B-girls from 2020 to 2023. The official Olympics site also has a detailed description of the rigorous process of qualifying to compete in the sport at the Olympics.)
From the link in @[email protected] ’s comment on this post
Ugh, that sucks.
I saw an interview with her yesterday where she said she gave it her best after a lot of work and was pretty upset about all the hate.
I guess I need to do some more research!
E: seems like she won some awards and was pretty good in her neck of the woods
This line of thinking is extremely retarded
Ok now that I've finally seen it:
It's funny af but she's not as terrible as I was led to believe. I mean that's not breakdancing but she's at least got fitness, coordination, and balance, but she ISN'T DOING ANYTHING WITH IT!
Like a good dancer that has never heard of pop and lock but had it described to them by a drunk Danish couple.
This is just one of a few though.... There's more....
How this was in the Olympics and karate isnt is hard to understand.
Karate isn't in the Olympics because they can't agree on rules and by extension have one rule making body.
TBH I would take any Karate ruleset over the current Taekwondo one. Just pick at random!
This is not representative of the rest of the event. The athleticism the real competitors were doing was incredible. It's closer to an improvised, artistic version of a gymnastics floor routine than this bullshit.
This person undeservingly getting a spot on stage is not representative of the sport. But surely you wouldn't be commenting on the validity of a sport after seeing only one person do it because then you would be susceptible to being wildly misinformed
Imho someone should have warned her..
I think she is someone who has been lied to. Like a girl who had never been told she cannot sing, and when she finally hits the talentshow, Simon Cowell has to break it to her. He's a dick, but he's not wrong.
And now a real, good breakdancer is missing out on this chance. We're talking about the Olympics for crying out loud. Not some tournament with all sorts of people joining. She does not have the skill to compete with the breakdancing going on, clearly, compared to others in this competition.
If she doesn't like the hate, then don't seek this spotlight. It's great to have a passion, yay you! It's not okay to force the world to enjoy your passion. It's that type of entitlement that gets people to support someone who clearly doesn't have what it takes to join the Olympics.
For real, as I'm writing this I don't get why people accept this. It's not fair to people ACTUALLY being good at this.
End of rant. Cannot wait to see people get mad at me for not accepting her on that stage.
She was warned, and acknowledged it in an interview before the Olympics. But, she could go to the Olympics. Honestly, it's kind of weirdly brave to knowingly go and embarrass yourself in front of a global audience. And it's mostly harmless.
I mean it's a mortal wound to breakdancing, Australia as a country, and the Olympics as an institution, all of which must necessarily be taken less seriously now. But other than that. 🤣
It's weirdly an asshole move more like.
The olympics are not accessible to everyone, that's the whole point. It's the best in the world at everything, not cool runnings B-reel. I don't understand why we have to have a war on prestige: some people are working hard to be good at things and they don't need to share the stage with the everyman. This was walking into a fancy dinner that you KNOW is exclusive wearing jeans and a beater and spitting on the floor when they call your name. Fuck, have the self-awarenees to say "I am not an Olympic athlete" and leave it at that.
Which is all to say your second paragraph is exactly on point lol.
But embarrassing oneself is one thing, taking away chances from people that actually try really hard.... Kinda mean
Whatever I've spent enough time on her now. Time to live life again.
We're talking about the Olympics for crying out loud. Not some tournament with all sorts of people joining
Ironic.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_sports#Olympics
Through most of the 20th century the Olympics allowed only amateur athletes to participate and this amateur code was strictly enforced - Jim Thorpe was stripped of track and field medals for having taken expense money for playing baseball in 1912.
Well I can’t do any of that so
With about 2 weeks of practice I bet you could.
I could probably pull off the swinging arms.
That's what people are riled up about?
Well... she did look like a clown at a children's party.
Eh. It looked no better or worse than most interpretative dance. I wouldn't spend any energy getting worked up over it.
Yeah. It’s weird that we’re still talking about this nothing burger.
RayGun is my hero. Queen of not giving a fuck
I mean, I get the love, but part of me feels bad knowing there were people in Australia with real skill that night have had a chance and she kinda robbed them. If I was a skilled break dancer in her country and saw that I don't think I would feel great about it.
This person is the “Eddy the Eagle” of the brake dancing world.
Soon she’s going to reveal she’s a Borat/Andy Kaufman-esque comedian and we’ve all been pranked.
Really good movie, BTW. A lot better than expected. Thanks for reminding me.
She fucking nailed it. What a baller.
Was there?
There was/is but its about licensing rather than Raygun’s performance Source
Music rights are frequently a thorn in distribution.
NBC holds this property tight
I'm so tired of hearing about this..
The thing is, at least she gave it a shot even if it was stupid and she sucks at it. She'll be the most popular person at the pub.I actually wish I had that opportunity even if the Internet laughed at me honestly
I guess the story is that she's actually really talented, but she decided she wasn't up to the level of the competition so she opted for a less technical, more expressive routine.
Or at least that's what my research turned up after watching that.
I'm not buying that. Her moves were slow and awkward, not "less technical." She had zero relationship with the music. She spent most of her time flopping like a fish. Slowly. I feel like she got lost while looking for the interpretive dance competition.
Wanna spread misinform real fast? Tell people she was a meme candidate chosen for her legendary super bowl performance as left shark. That's more believable than "she can actually breakdance."
The problem as i see it is that there is definitely a female Breakdancer In Australia that is better. She just wanted a free vacation and pulled the right strings to get put on the team instead of someone with less connections and a better performance.
Like these girls in the bc one cypher in 2022 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aB3xIUFYH78&pp=ygURYXVzdHJhbGlhbiBiLWdpcmw%3D
The only thing I enjoyed about this sport was everybody skipping to the stage like they're one of the Railway Children on their way to collect a hamper from rich, land-owning Uncle Bertie.
They should have had parkour instead.
I see someone who is passionate about something, trying her best, and having a good time doing it.
Good for her. The routine is goofy, but fuck yea. I'm glad she is out there doing what she loves.
Not when she's taking the place of someone else who is more competent at it on a world stage. 1:01 part was actually impressive though.
Trying your best and doing it right are 2 different things. It is time this butthurt world re-understands this. Someone should have told her she sucks at it. And yes, it would hurt her feelings but also opening up opportunities for her to pursue something else she will, undoubtedly, be better at.
She can still dance like this if she wants to with all the passion in her heart, but break dance competition, nope.
She spearheaded the selection for Australia‘s break dancers, excluded anyone who was better than her in the preliminaries, and then picked herself to go to the Olympics. Then once she got there, she realized she was going to get her ass handed to her by the competition, so she decided to be goofy instead of actually trying (and failing) to keep up.
She doesn’t deserve any praise.
Yes. Except, no. None of that is true.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/australian-breakdancer-raygun-olympics/
I looked for this video for over a week. For something so widely discussed it's crazy nobody could actually see it.
https://odysee.xxx/@deniel22:b/raygun:1
Switch the xxx with com.
I still have yet to see the part where she supposedly jumps like a kangaroo!
🎶 Ready, steady, wi-i-gle! You can jump like a kangaroo! 🎶
I think it's in the second part, right at the beginning.
Honestly, she won the only real thing that matters: actual attention and fame. I couldn’t tell you who won the medals. But I’ll definitely remember her performance for years. She’s now famous, whether she wants to or not. I’d lean into that if I was her.
She spun in her head though. That's kinda impressive. Right?
if she hadn't stopped 2/3rds of the way through I was about to give her credit for at least one move.
Not the way she did it.
I knew acid culture was huge in Australia but man she was feeling it
Here is the 04:52min version: https://lemmy.world/post/18807790
https://files.catbox.moe/8lfmd1.webm
Comparisions:
lil kid killing it
Full all 3 sets.
https://odysee.XXX/@deniel22:b/raygun:1
Change out the XXX with com. Trying not to get caught.
Yep, this one works 👍.
They didn't try really hard...
This is the part with all the photos but none of the video :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXWHX5oB2hY&t=7175s
It's from a different... match?
Video unavailable in your region :(
Yep, same.
Yea I really wanna see where that comes from, like where she has the kangaroo pose, but its taken down sadly
You can find these videos all over the fkn internet what do you mean you can't find it?lmao
Magnificent
Great summary of the Olympics in general. In can't criticize because I've had psychotic episodes with much less twitching.
Man, the jam on it video has wayyy better breakdancers.
Where was that iconic kangaroo pose?
Second part of the battle I think.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
RayGun is still the GOAT.
Could someone explain what goat means? I've read it on various places and I don't think it's the animal that people are referring to...
This really goes to show how little provocation internet weirdos need to hate on a woman.
Why are you making it about gender? She has the dance moves of a kid in the grocery store cereal aisle.
If it was a dude it would be like William Hung, everyone would still laugh at him but would also be kinda rooting for him. People are right to laugh at Raygun, but the conspiracies about her getting ahead because of her husband have a sexist vibe to them.
You know fine rightly people wouldn't be making a big deal of this or ignoring the reasons behind this if it was a man.
