Sure, I’m not saying it was justified, it’s just an explanation of why things turned out how they did, and why people don’t consider Gunn’s participation as legitimate.
I tried finding videos of her breakdancing outside of the Olympics and in my opinion she’s… Okay. She’s better than she showed in the Olympics, but I don’t see anything that impressive. She clearly can dance, which I would hope because she’s professional. But not great.
I am not a breakdancer and not a great dancer in general. But I see dancers all the time since my daughter dances. Many of the kids who do hip hop at my daughter’s academy can outperform her. And we’re talking high school and younger. The Olympics should represent the best in the world.
Agreed, she’s not great. She’s okay, at best. At age 36 there’s not a chance she could beat any of the younger Dancers.
Dance, at high levels, is a limited thing, by age. It’s just so hard on the body.
That is why Biles is so great, at her age (27) doing gymnastics the way she does.
Combined bouldering and lead climbing’s your dawg, there. It’s like full-body chess, 15 feet up an overhanging wall. Debuted in Tokyo and was a success in Paris, so I’m hopeful it will be a permanent addition to the Games. Mrs. SMV and I have started semi-seriously talking about going to LA for the 2028 Games, and if we do, breaking and climbing are the two tix we’d try for.
I think that’s the root of the debate- what is and isn’t a sport, and why.
I tend to think that at their purest, sports are athletic competitions that as part of their inherent nature, have a clear winner and loser. Something like a track race is a sport- someone clearly crosses the finish line first. Something like shotput is a sport- someone clearly puts the shot farthest. Basketball is a sport- one team makes more baskets than the other. Doesn’t matter if it’s ugly, if they’re limping, if they’re awkward, gawky, or just have strange looking form, what matters is who wins. There’s a sort of Thunderdome kind of aspect to it - someone wins, and everyone else loses, and it’s not up to someone else. (which is why officiating issues are so infuriating to competitors and spectators alike)
Other athletic competitions aren’t so clear cut. Judged competitions in particular skate close to not being “sports” as such. And as such, there’s not much to distinguish gymnastics from artistic swimming, or either of those from breakdancing or something like ballroom dancing/Dancesport. Granted, gymnastics has gone a long way to formalize the scoring and the actual athletic things the athletes need to do in order to be scored, but there’s still a fairly large part that is subjective and comes down to how good or graceful they look while they do something.
Breakdancing isn’t much different, except that it feels to me like it’s an attempt to athleticize/sportify a leisure activity, rather than try to impose some sort of artisticness onto something athletic. And it seems like maybe it was too early- I didn’t even know, as I’m betting many others didn’t either, that breakdancing was even a formally competitive event.
But keep in mind, this is just based on your definition. You like a clear objective measure of the winner. That’s fair. But there’s nothing that says this is the definition of a “sport”.
To be clear, I know you are just expressing your opinion and not advocating for this definition to be the one used by everyone. But it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that there’s nothing inherent in “sport” that means judging makes a sport less pure. That’s just a matter of opinion.
If you wanna like Breakdancing, and I do like to see any dancing, that’s fine.
I personally think water polo is the weirdest sport. Kinda like Lacrosse, I’ve never understood it. So I find it kinda boring to watch.
Breakdancing is as foreign to the Olympics as, say, Corgi dog races. Fun, entertaining but not a real sport.
Surprise, that’s my opinion.
I don’t pretend everyone shares the same opinion. I wouldn’t ever want them to.
My old soul thinks variety makes the world go 'round.
Breakdance championships are not new. The biggest event is arguably Red Bull BC One which will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year. Other events, like IBE in the Netherlands and the UK B-boy championship (which is an international event) are even older.
Oh, Agree.
She doesn’t have a good break or snap back. Her aerial stuff is not good it looks awkward and unset.
Her standby, did I see her blow her nose?
Awful.
I say this as a critique not as judging her person. I’m sure she’s very nice, obviously intelligent.
This is just not her talent.
I was trying to offer a definition. That’s one of the issues at hand here. For example, why would breakdancing be a sport, and bodybuilding isn’t? Or why isn’t chess? Or E-sports?
In general, I want the Olympics to be something where you burn crazy calories (and go upside down a lot). I’m not crazy about target shooting, for instance. But I don’t care enough to gatekeep.
They should have dodgeball.
13 yo. On teams. At least one Clark Kent looking nerd on each team. Of course he/she breaks out and makes the point winning kick and wins the gold for the whole team.
