hello and welcome back to assorted beefs
Where I talk about anything I want to that doesn’t fit into niche 🫖
for any particular reason
I wanna talk about Raygun at the Olympics
and not just that she was bad
we know that
8,000 foot recap for those who maybe aren’t aware for some reason
but breakdancing made its debut at the 2024 Olympics in Paris
this year in the women’s division specifically
one of the participants was a representative of Australia named Rachel Gunn
whose breakdance name is Raygun
Raygun came in dead last
She did a bunch of very silly looking moves
that didn’t really compare
at all to the power and technique of the other people competing
and has since become a huge meme
this then naturally started bringing up a lot of conversation
how did this person go to the Olympics
and then from there a whole rabbit hole came out
about how the process for qualifications were rigged by her and her husband
who is her coach
to allow her to go and prevent more qualified people from attending
there are a lot of claims that she and her husband
who are very involved in the breakdancing community in Australia
were very involved in the qualifying process
qualifiers were held in Australia
and not only was her husband one of the judges
the other ones were also their friends
and then on top of that there were allegedly much better dancers throughout
the country who were unable to attend for financial reasons
the qualifier
and Raygun and her husband had an ability to potentially help them and did not
one particular dancer people have been focusing on is named Molly Chapman
who was at that same qualifier and lost to Raygun despite being clearly better
In most people’s determination
and then on top of all of that
because of this terrible performance
breaking is actually being removed from the Olympics in 2028
even despite the fact that in 2028
the Olympics will be in America
where breakdancing originated
as you can imagine
people have been talking about this like crazy on all kinds of places
you’ve probably seen it on TikTok and Twitter
people are very incensed about this
there’s even a petition that has like 50,000 signatures on it
to investigate Raygun and her husband for what they’ve done here
here’s the thing though
‼️ none of that is true ‼️
these rumours seem to have started on Twitter
there’s a particular tweet that has now even gotten
A community note correcting it against it
but it’s been seen by 1.2 million people
because people were so confused
about how someone with raygun’s skill level would make it to the Olympics
and were looking for a reason this made sense to them
they just kind of ran with it
but for each of those points that I just mentioned
there is either active evidence showing that that is not true
or at absolute best zero evidence supporting the claim
so what did happen?
it seems like
for the most part because breaking is new to the Olympics
and because it is not something that’s well entrenched throughout the world
like it is in the US
not every region has a good governing body to be able to manage the qualifier
Raygun did win the qualifier that was held in Australia in October of 2023
and that got her her spot at the Olympics
the organisation in Australia that held that qualifier is traditionally one that’s more broad dance
not specific to breakdancing
they did source an international panel of judges to judge the qualifier
and you can find that list of judges in a bunch of different official places
at the time that they announced
and on that list it’s very clear – none of them is her husband
his name is Samuel Free or goes by “Sammy the free”
there’s also no evidence that Raygun or her husband were
in any way involved with the committee that managed everything
or the decision on who the judges would be
there’s also no evidence that anyone needed to be individually sponsored
by Raygun or her husband
and was denied that from what I can see
it looks like the Olympics has a whole separate pot of money
for that type of stuff if it’s necessary
feel like somebody was just remembering the movie Bring It On with that
and how they needed money to go to the finals or whatever
so what happened at the qualifier?
well good news – it was recorded
and you can see she’s a little bit better
and here’s the winner (Raygun) she won
you can see at the bottom (the judges scores)
[Molly is] definitely better than Raygun
and I’m not entirely sure if this is the exact qualifier
or if this is just another performance of hers
that was cool ….but I’m an idiot
so I don’t know
you get the point so she’s a little bit better
but it’s not like she’s this savant who was overlooked
it was apparently very close in the end between the two of them
but Raygun did win
and you can find quotes from the judges saying that she won fair and square
and again
there’s no evidence that these judges are in collusion with Raygun
and her husband at all
as far as how we got to what we ended up seeing in the Olympics from Raygun
she’s come out and said flat out
that she knew
she wasn’t anywhere near the same level as these other competitors
when it comes to technique and power
she knew that 20% of her score would come from originality
or creativity as she’s been calling it
so that’s where she got some of those more like locally inspired moves
like the kangaroo hop that we all know so well
now unfortunately
this did not pan out for her
but it doesn’t change the fact that it was a strategy that she took legitimately
thinking it would give her the best chance
and finally when it comes to 2028 and the removal of breakdancing
that decision had been made before the breakdancing competition this year
even started basically
there are a core set of events that are always included in the Olympics
the permanent events and then on top of that
there are nominated events by the host city who will be hosting the next Olympics
in order for a sport to be included on the permanent list
which means it would always be included going forward
it has to be nominated by the host city as an extra event
to include three Olympic Games in a row
so since this was breakdancing’s first year
and it had been additionally included by Paris
LA who’s hosting in 2028
would have to additionally include it themselves
and they chose not to again
before the competition this year even started
why LA didn’t nominate it
be included again especially because it is like a US based thing
I’m not entirely sure but you gotta take it up with them
so to recap: it was quite literally
just a perfect storm that got us Raygun doing the kangaroo move at the Olympics
there is no evidence of any kind
and actively evidence against all of these conspiracy theories
that have been coming out about Raygun and her husband
regardless of Raygun’s performance at the Olympics
she does not deserve to have this level of maliciousness targeted at her
and this is could be actively
really detrimental to her and her family
so I’d encourage you please don’t spread the misinformation
if you see misinformation
call it out for what it is
she really doesn’t deserve this
here is Jorts being silly
and then scaring the crap out of me
what are you doing
Jesus