To those who think breaking should not be in the Olympics: Chillax. Or shove off

The BBQ Pit
101

Rachael Gunn is not the same at all.

In the case of Eric the Eel and Eddie whatshisname, that was a country that did not have much skill sending the best volunteer they could dig up.

In the case of Gunn, she partially controlled the method by which she was selected and conned her way in. Australia has, and I’m guessing low here, at least a thousand better female breakdancers than her, but the method by which she got to go excluded almost everyone in the country. It was as if Canada, instead of actually sending the best hockey players they have to the Winter Games, sending a beer league team that had connections to the Canadian olympic committee.

102

I didn’t know about that part; if she has essentially cheated to get her place at the olympics, then of course I am not going to defend that.

103

It seems like she gamed the system.

104

Which is often the real medal event.

105

Do you go by the number of times an athlete turns upside down, or the total time spent inverted?

Artisitic swimmers turn upside down and stick their legs up out of the water, and stay there. If you mutliply by the eight team members, that’s a significiant amount of time spent upside down.

If you just count the number of inversions, you must love the freestyle swimming. The 1500m requires 30 lengths of the pool, with a flip turn at each end. 29 flips times 8 swimmers is 232 flips, and that’s just in the final. Add in the qualifying heats, and the men’s and women’s event, and we could be well over 1,000 somersaults. Katie Ledecky and Bobby Finke must be gods to you.

106

How so? I ask because it sounded like they had a qualifying event that she won. How did they exclude other entrants?

107

I dunno, but I’m gonna define it so that those don’t count, because those aren’t as fun to me. Underwater upside down isn’t impressive. I can do that myself.

(I hope it’s clear that I’m being totally ridiculous here. what I appreciate in a sport is nobody’s business but my own, and given how little sports I watch anyway, nobody at all should care about my preferences. But even if I watched a ton of sports, it’d be beyond stupid for me to tell other folks not to like what they like.)

108

I did the math on the number of flip turns in a swimming race. You’re not the only one being ridiculous.

But from such frivolity, interesting ideas can sometimes arise. What sports, excluding swimming, have the most upside-downness? Divers do 3, and sometimes 4, flips on each dive, and multiple rounds of diving. Trampolinists are flipping almost constantly. Men’s high-bar gymasts are twirling around the bar for the whole routine. Pole vaulters go up feet first before clearing the bar.

109

So, any sport that’s played in Australia? Except gymnastics, I guess. 'Cos when gymnasts go upside down in Australia, they’re right-side up.

110

I came up with this rule when I saw some skateboarders doing some sort of downhill tube flipping nonsense at the Olympics. It was super-fun, and I realized how much I like seeing people go upside down.

111

So, she fits into the Olympics perfectly.

112

I’m an old fart and I think breakdancing doesn’t belong in the Olympics any more than ballroom dancing. Dancing is not a sport.

113

In my book it is, just like professional ballroom dancing (have you ever watched such a tournament?). It’s a combination of athletics and artistry. Some other sports, like the aforementioned figure skating, rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming are similar, with a slightly more bend on athletics, but I also admire the physical achievements of ballet dancers who have to do physical work out like any other pro athlete.

114

For those who like upside down athletes but dislike subjective judging, there’s pole vault and high jump. There is a point in every jump where the athletes’ feet are above their head.

115

Well, Dancesport didn’t know who to go to to hold the qualifying event, so they asked someone connected to them who said she knew a lot about break dancing: Rachael Gunn. Gunn said to go to the Australian Breaking Association. That organization has virtually no reach in Australia, but Gunn is in it. (accusations that she FOUNDED it are not true, though.)

It’s impossible to think this organization or process was effective in identifying the best Australian competitors; her performance was a sad joke, and Australia does have talented breakdancers.

Even if Gunn is herself entirely sincere in the process, it’s the responsibility of international sporting federations to ensure their constituent national and regional committees do a fair and effective job in qualifying athletes. If they’re sending Rachael Gunn and overlooking a small arena’s worth of superior athletes, they’re not competent at their job.

116

Yet your own article you posted:

Link

That explains it. She won a competition from the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) which is a ballroom dancing organization. It was seen as a farce, so serious breakdancers stayed away, and she was the best of who bothered to show up.

“The WDSF is a competitive ballroom dance organisation. It has absolutely no connection or credibility with any legitimate entity in the worldwide breaking community,” he wrote.

“That the IOC has allowed these impostors to oversee breaking at the Youth Olympics is a travesty and a scandal.

“Would the IOC allow the Badminton World Federation to oversee baseball? Would it allow the Federation for Equestrian Sports to oversee auto-racing? Why would the Olympics accept such a polar opposite and illegitimate entity as the WDSF to have anything to do with breaking?

But the lack of support - even anger - from sections of the breaking community may explain the overall quality of the participants in Paris.

I also think that Gunn is better than how she performed at the Olympics. She does hip hop dancing professionally. I can almost guarantee you that she’s not bad. But she also knew that she couldn’t legitimately compete against younger, more athletic hip hop dancers, so she saw it as an opportunity to experiment, and the results of her experimentation were what the world saw.

“I was never going to beat these girls on what they do best, the dynamic and the power moves,” Gunn said after her performance went viral.

“So I wanted to move differently, be artistic and creative because how many chances do you get in a lifetime to do that on an international stage?

“I was always the underdog and wanted to make my mark in a different way.”

I mean, she absolutely did make her mark in a different way, though I’m not sure it was the way she meant to.

117

Huh?

I didn’t say culture appropriation, the guy in the cite did.
That must be how he feels about it. He said it. I tend to believe him. Why?
Because it’s his culture.

Yes, I’m an old soul. And I mean it in a good way.

I take personal insult at your rant at me, for believing what the man said in the cite.

As far as wanting more people upside down, well skiers might have issues with this. That girl that fell on her head off the parallel bars might rather she landed right side up.
But, hey, you do you.

118

I wonder if her performance has been viewed more times than that of any other performer? Maybe even more than all the other performers combined? I’ve seen Gunn’s dance at least a dozen times in various memes and social media posts. The only other break dancers I’ve seen have been in short clips in the Olympic coverage and in a news story about the American break dancer. Speaking for me personally, I’m confident I’ve viewed Gunn’s dancing for more time than all the other dancers combined because her performance has gone viral. It’s a shame for the other dancers. Lots of people already think break dancing is a joke. Now they’ve likely seen Gunn’s performance but none of the others and think it’s even more of a joke.

119

She embarrassed herself. She embarrassed Australia. She embarrassed the Olympics.

Is it good to “go viral” and be famous because of embarrassment? Well, No.

She probably single-handedly kept Breaking from being in the Olympics in the future.

120

No downside to that move.

There are tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of athletes worldwide who dream about an opportunity to represent their country in the Olympics. Your sport, your thing, is announced for the 2024 Olympics, and you choose to sit it out because the IOC didn’t organize it the way you wanted? The organizers didn’t have enough “reach” in your area to attract your attention?

At least you won’t have these concerns in 4 years, or ever again.

This could be an episode of “When keeping it real goes wrong”.