# To those who think breaking should not be in the Olympics: Chillax. Or shove off **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** olympic-sports-track\ **Created:** [August 13, 2024, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633 "2024-08-13T00:32:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2024, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633/61 "2024-08-13T22:02:43Z")
Well, okay. It’s like I said, they don’t require me to approve of the rules of events. I’ll live with what they say they’re gonna do. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2024, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633/62 "2024-08-13T22:04:39Z")
I doubt you are old enough to remember when style points were added to ski jumping. They go back to the very beginning of ski jumping competitions. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2024, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633/63 "2024-08-13T22:08:00Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > (Beck is what I’m called, everyday, it is part of my name.) Guess what. Raygun’s real name is Rachael Gunn. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2024, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633/64 "2024-08-13T22:10:27Z")
Anyways, because of this thread I have now watched a bunch of break dance competitions. Just enough to be an expert as it happens. I have concluded that the sport it worthy of being an Olympic Demo Sport and Raygun’s performance was an embarrassment. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2024, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633/65 "2024-08-13T22:11:10Z")
My personal suspicion is that a lot of the distaste for judged or specialist-evaluated events is rooted in aversion to what I call “showbiz cooties”. That is, a lot of sports enthusiasts like to feel that they are watching something more inspiring and more “real” than a mere show put on to entertain an audience. Of course, all public sports competitions are nothing BUT a show put on to entertain an audience, and without the audience none of them would exist. But to a lot of viewers, that reality has distasteful connotations of exhibitions that are somehow “staged” or “scripted”: the aforesaid “showbiz cooties”. They think of it as implying some kind of WWF-style kayfabe, which naturally they oppose. (Same reason they don’t like “Sports” and “Entertainment” categories combined in journalism.) But there’s no reason that an entertainment performance can’t be about honest athletic competition with no predetermined outcome. That’s essentially just a form of style-specific improv. So you (generic “you”) aren’t really protecting your preferred “quantitative-metric” sports from “showbiz cooties” by insisting they ought to be separated from specialist-evaluation events like figure skating and breaking. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2024, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633/66 "2024-08-13T22:12:21Z")
Yep. She’s a PhD… she has a dissertation about Break Dancing. But she _Cannot_ break dance. 0/0 is bad scores. Fine, she was there to promote the skills in the dancing. Ummm, She set the art back 20 years. All by herself. Australia should not have sent her. I’m sure there are better Breakdancers in Australia. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2024, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633/67 "2024-08-13T22:16:14Z")
Right, but I think **hajario** ’s point was that “Ray-gun” is just as valid as an approximation for the real-life name “Rachael Gunn” (Ray Gunn, get it? 😀) as your handle is for your name. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2024, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633/68 "2024-08-13T22:19:39Z")
I bet she didn’t sign “Raygun” to her dissertation. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2024, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633/69 "2024-08-13T22:21:29Z")
True, but is there a reason that one’s dissertation-author name and one’s Olympic-competition name need to have exactly the same format? I’m not seeing it. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2024, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633/70 "2024-08-13T22:23:37Z")
Well it was put in at first… ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2024, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633/71 "2024-08-13T22:25:24Z")
Because, I say so. 😊 Not really, I just want to know their real names. Like I said, if the IOC wants to allow the use of their nicknames, I’ll be fine with it. They undoubtedly don’t give a shit what I think. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2024, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633/72 "2024-08-13T22:29:02Z")
Fair enuf, but I think all the official results on olympics dot com and the like do include competitors’ legal-type names. So you can know! 😀 ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2024, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633/73 "2024-08-13T22:38:03Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Yep. She’s a PhD… she has a dissertation about Break Dancing. > But she _Cannot_ break dance. > 0/0 is bad scores. Kind of. The way they score it is there are nine judges and each judge gives one point to the best dancer of that round. In each of her rounds the one competitor was judged better than she. Theoretically, the second best dance ever would get zeros against the best dance ever. But > [@](#): > > Fine, she was there to promote the skills in the dancing. Ummm, She set the art back 20 years. All by herself. > Australia should not have sent her. I’m sure there are better Breakdancers in Australia. I agree with this. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2024, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633/74 "2024-08-13T22:48:53Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I’m sure there are better Breakdancers in Australia. I also think her outfit was unfortunate. She looked _cute_ as all get-out, but cute was not what was called for. The effect was that of a perky gas-station attendant. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2024, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633/75 "2024-08-13T22:54:01Z")
I guess I was (almost) heartbroken when I learned that style points were part of ski jumping. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2024, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633/76 "2024-08-13T23:43:07Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Great, so have some events of each kind, and everybody’s happy. What’s the problem? Are we running out of Olympic capacity or something because there are too many different types of events, or what? Well, yeah; having more events in the Olympics means more athletes (coaches, officials, etc.), which means more venues and more housing in the host city. It’s already hugely expensive to host the games, so there has to be some limit on which events are in, and which are out. There are plenty of sports whose players and fans would like to be in the Games. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2024, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633/77 "2024-08-13T23:47:13Z")
Fair, but that kind of overpopulation issue doesn’t seem in any way dependent on what **kind** of new sport event is included in the Games. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2024, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633/78 "2024-08-13T23:56:18Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > Cheerleading is also very athletic, and requires skills and moves and such, but I don’t see anyone seriously arguing that it should be included as an Olympic event. I seriously don’t see why not. That sounds like it would be great for the Summer Olympics. I really like the idea. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2024, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633/79 "2024-08-14T00:04:11Z")
It seems to me we have an argument about whether judged sports belong in the Olympics every two years. My feeling is: Some judged events are extremely popular and have been part of the Games since the very beginning. No way will they be dropped. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2024, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633/80 "2024-08-14T02:44:17Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I’m sure there are better Breakdancers in Australia. I’m skimming this and mis-read that as _“better Beckdawrekers in Australia”_ I doubt it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-those-who-think-breaking-should-not-be-in-the-olympics-chillax-or-shove-off/1005633.md?page=5)