Olympics Talk: A brief discussion before it goes away

[Dannyalcatraz]

and the mem makers are on top of it

I haven’t seen THAT one, but I have seen a couple dozen others.

 

[trappedslider]

I haven’t seen THAT one, but I have seen a couple dozen others.

It's the only one i see btw the true winners of the games: The meme makers.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

 

[Tonguez]

But an even bigger problem is the political aspect. From SkateGate in the early 2000s, to cold war era judging complaints, as far back as the 1936 games, and everything in between, I have learned to despise when politics get involved in judging sports. And the Olympics really seems to struggle with keeping politics out. Which I understand isn't anyone's fault in particular. But the only effective fix I see is to keep things quantitative.

oh well now there is a Change.org petition seeking an investigation into Rayguns "Unethical Conduct Olympic Selection"

We, the undersigned, call for immediate accountability and transparency in the recent actions of Rachel Gunn and Anna Mears in the selection process for Australia's female breakdancer representative at the upcoming Olympics.
Rachel Gunn, who set up her own governing body for breakdancing, has manipulated the selection process to her own advantage. Despite the clear talent and qualification of other outstanding female breakdancers like G Clef and Holy Molly, they were unfairly overlooked. The NT Youlong Boys, a group of incredibly talented and underprivileged youth from the Northern Territory, were denied crucial funding by Dr. Gunn to attend the qualifiers—a decision that directly impacted their chance to showcase their skills on a national stage.
Disturbingly, Dr. Gunn went on to win her own qualifier, defeating other phenomenal breakdancers, raising serious questions about the fairness and integrity of the process. If Dr. Gunn's husband is indeed the Australian coach and part of the selection panel, this represents a blatant conflict of interest that cannot go unchecked.
We demand a public apology from Rachel Gunn and Anna Mears for misleading the Australian public and attempting to gaslight the public and undermining the efforts of genuine athletes. We also call for a full investigation into the selection process, an audit of Dr. Gunn's business dealings, and a global public apology to the breaking community for the unethical behavior that has tainted this sport. Rachel Gunn's lack of ethics and morals raises serious concerns about her fitness to teach and hold any position of authority in the sport, or university.
Australia must do better by its athletes and ensure that the principles of fairness, transparency, and integrity are upheld in all aspects of Olympic selection."

 

[briggart]

I’ve heard of hackey sack, but never hockey soccer.

I don’t see that getting an Olympic nod before pankration.

That said, it reminds me somewhat of how some punk friends of mine described their version of Ultimate Frisbee back in the mid/late-1980s.

I looked up pankration a bit, and found some interesting tidbits on ancient winners, like:

• Arrhichion of Phigalia, who succesfully defended his title in 568BC, but died doing so
• Sostratus of Sychion, notorious for his finger-breaking technique
• Dioxipus, who won because nobody else dared fighting him.

I started wondering about pankration at modern Olympics, which lead me to checking out how many athletes died while competing at modern Olympics. Turns out 2 (a cyclist and a runner), but also 6 horses. So, yeah, fork horses at the Olympics.

 

[trappedslider]

Shhhh we’re hunting wabbits

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Somebody posted a nice snippet from the breaking competition.

 

[Clint_L]

oh well now there is a Change.org petition seeking an investigation into Rayguns "Unethical Conduct Olympic Selection"

Yeah, so I found this topic interesting and have been poking around looking for some reputable reporting, because there's a lot of rumours swirling. I suspect the we are going to see a LOT of ink once proper journalists start digging, because it's a potentially fascinating story.

My initial takeaway is that the break dancing scene in Australia is really localized, and Rachel "Ray" Gunn, along with her coach/husband (noted for his similarly...unique...style) is prominent within the group that essentially ran the competition for Olympic selection. Many dancers in Australia are complaining that the small competition was in effect rigged, or at least organized in a way that made it inaccessible to most of them, and not well publicized. It certainly does not appear to have been a very open selection process, and the results...well, you can watch for yourself.

Interestingly, Gunn is a college lecturer on the cultural impact of break dancing. As a fellow teacher, I normally hate the expression "those that can't do, teach," but in this case...

And that's setting aside controversy about cultural appropriation.

 

[Mannahnin]

Yeah, so I found this topic interesting and have been poking around looking for some reputable reporting, because there's a lot of rumours swirling. I suspect the we are going to see a LOT of ink once proper journalists start digging, because it's a potentially fascinating story.

My initial takeaway is that the break dancing scene in Australia is really localized, and Rachel "Ray" Gunn, along with her coach/husband (noted for his similarly...unique...style) is prominent within the group that essentially ran the competition for Olympic selection. Many dancers in Australia are complaining that the small competition was in effect rigged, or at least organized in a way that made it inaccessible to most of them, and not well publicized. It certainly does not appear to have been a very open selection process, and the results...well, you can watch for yourself.

Yes, apparently they have just a couple of dozen people in their club, and it seems to have fallen to them because they had some contact/affiliation with the competitive ballroom dance org, to whom the IOC had given the job of finding a breakdancing org to run trials and selection. It seems like most breakdancers in Australia didn't even know about it.

 

[Ulfgeir]

As far as I gather, Breakdancing will not be included in the coming olympics.