Olympics Talk: A brief discussion before it goes away

[Clint_L]

Traveling, but this is probably worth noting-

Raygun earned her spot in the Olympics. Yes, really.

The truth behind the ongoing controversy over the Australian b-girl.

www.vox.com

Stupid facts ruining a good story!

Though I utterly reject the "she wasn't that bad" argument. She was. Still, does this mean there's hope for Elaine?

 

[Older Beholder]

Overall I really enjoyed the Olympics this year.
I sat up and watched the Women's basketball final between USA and France which was the final event and determined who would win the overall medal tally.

I was also really Impressed by Arisa Trew, who became Australia's youngest gold medalist, winning the women's skate park. Her interview after winning where she says her mum promised to get her a pet duck if she won gold was adorable.
(she's also the only woman that's ever landed the 900, which she did at the age of 13)

There'll be a Raygun movie one day in the tradition of Cool Runnings, just you wait.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Stupid facts ruining a good story!

I know! I just heard the stupid facts about Jesse Owens and Luz Long, and it wrecked that good story. Sure, it deepened it. It corrected the historical record. And it actually made sense.

But it also kinda sorta sucked.

Though I utterly reject the "she wasn't that bad" argument. She was. Still, does this mean there's hope for Elaine?

A few things on this-

1. I heard this before I traveled and didn't have time to post it, but I recommend listening to this:

This was before the controversy, but it's a fascinating look at how breaking became a sport, and an introduction into the controversies regarding scoring in breaking and in other sports that rely on judging, and why some people aren't necessarily in favor of a more objective scoring metric that would require certain moves, etc.

2. In my original post introducing the breaking (and Raygun) issue that I made after watching the performances live, but before the storm of memes and controversy, I made the point that it just didn't deserve the hate. She was outmatched, and knew it. But she performed, and she made some ... interesting and unorthodox choices. If you look at the finals (THE FINALS!) of the Oceania competition, you can see that her performance isn't the same, but neither she nor her competition has the level of skill that we saw from the very top performers from elsewhere. She could have just lost, but instead chose to lose with a little oomph.

3. Was she really that much worse than the Moroccan B-girl (lost 18-0, 18-0, 16-2, and her 16-2 loss was to the Italian B-girl who lost her other matched 17-1, 16-2)?


The internet is like a play that changes every day. And every day on t he internet there is one main character in the play. The goal is to never be it.

I always worry about these sorts of things! I wonder how many people could break as well as she does? I mean, she might suck, but I suck so much harder.

 

[Maxperson]

Somebody posted a nice snippet from the breaking competition.

I can't see that. Was it this one?

 

[Maxperson]

That is how you lose but still keep bragging rights

I've heard many times more talk about him than whoever won the gold.

 

[Maxperson]

This is why I would like to see it as an olympic event in future. I like the olympics for showing us what the human body is capable of when pushed to its limit, and watching this, it appears to have that in spades

I don't want to see it return. Not that it isn't impressive or physically taxing, but I don't see it(or any dance) as a sport. Tree trimming is also physically taxing. That's not a sport, either.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I don't want to see it return. Not that it isn't impressive or physically taxing, but I don't see it(or any dance) as a sport. Tree trimming is also physically taxing. That's not a sport, either.

If they can score figure skating, surely they can score break dancing. I don't see how break dancing is less of a sport than that. I watch the olympics to see how far athletes can push the boundaries of the human body and performance

 

[Bedrockgames]

I know! I just heard the stupid facts about Jesse Owens and Luz Long, and it wrecked that good story. Sure, it deepened it. It corrected the historical record. And it actually made sense.

But it also kinda sorta sucked.



A few things on this-

1. I heard this before I traveled and didn't have time to post it, but I recommend listening to this:

This was before the controversy, but it's a fascinating look at how breaking became a sport, and an introduction into the controversies regarding scoring in breaking and in other sports that rely on judging, and why some people aren't necessarily in favor of a more objective scoring metric that would require certain moves, etc.

2. In my original post introducing the breaking (and Raygun) issue that I made after watching the performances live, but before the storm of memes and controversy, I made the point that it just didn't deserve the hate. She was outmatched, and knew it. But she performed, and she made some ... interesting and unorthodox choices. If you look at the finals (THE FINALS!) of the Oceania competition, you can see that her performance isn't the same, but neither she nor her competition has the level of skill that we saw from the very top performers from elsewhere. She could have just lost, but instead chose to lose with a little oomph.

3. Was she really that much worse than the Moroccan B-girl (lost 18-0, 18-0, 16-2, and her 16-2 loss was to the Italian B-girl who lost her other matched 17-1, 16-2)?


The internet is like a play that changes every day. And every day on t he internet there is one main character in the play. The goal is to never be it.

I always worry about these sorts of things! I wonder how many people could break as well as she does? I mean, she might suck, but I suck so much harder.

I think if people want to point to other performances and compare them, to make a case that others were also bad, that is fair. But the issue with a lot of these think pieces is they are making very intellectually dishonest arguments to turn a bad performance into a good one. Some of the articles I have read on this just make me want to bang my head on a table. Now personally I don't think Rayon deserves hate, she showed up and did her best. She didn't commit a sin or do something wrong. So I do think you make a good point on the hate front. But it was a bad performance to anyone with eyes. And I think it is fair to label it as such. The problem is on social media a notably bad performance, can be made into so much more because meme makers and media outlets want to layer all these other lenses and additional levels of meaning to it. I would say judge the performance, not the person thought the performance.

 

[Deset Gled]

If they can score figure skating, surely they can score break dancing.

They can't.

Seriously, the number of scandals and controversies in scoring figure skating over the last few decades is ridiculous.

 

[GrimCo]

Watched lots of it since there was heat wave and going to beach was no no before 16-17h. Few random thoughts after watching it.

I don't like they banned leg grabs in judo.

Taekwoondo is rubbish. It needs to go away. It's barley even combat sport. Can we finally get proper full contact striking based combat sport? Muay thai was demonstration sport this year and it was miles better than TKD.

IMHO, all sports that depend on subjective judges score of artistic impression need to go away. If there isn't precise measurement mechanism to determine winner, sport isn't for Olympics.