Latest / The Front / Raygun and the Olympic blame game (Best of 2024)

Transcript

Raygun and the Olympic blame game (Best of 2024) · The Front

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. I'm Claire Harvey. We've loved bringing you
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: insights from our journals around the nation and the world
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: this year. Over this holiday break, we're revisiting some of
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: our biggest and best episodes from a huge year in
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the news. This episode originally aired on August twelve, when
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: her Olympic performance propelled Australian breaker Rachel gunn Aka regum
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: to global infamy, and when another Olympic legend leapt to
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: her defense, the blame game began. The Front will return
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: with all new episodes on Monday, January thirteen. Just hit
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: follow or subscribe to hear the latest every morning. Every
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Olympic Games turns up a folk hero. We've had Eddie
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: b Eagle, the British ski jumper who in nineteen eighty
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: eight finished a resounding last but became a crowd sensation.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Or Eddie the Eel, who in two thousand Sydney Games
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: swam the slowest one hundred meters freestyle in Olympic history,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: one of his first dips in a fifty meter pool
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: to a roaring standing ovation. Well, I thought I'd seen
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: everything in the Olympics.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Rooming poor.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Speed skater Stephen Bradbury, who I would defend as a
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: master tactician art who Australians embraced for the pure dumb
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: luck of winning a race after everybody else fell over.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Bradbury way off the pace and Lee is now the
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: challenger for owner Lee coming up on the outside when
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Lee has gone down and Bradbury was in a perfect
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: spot states over the line. Australia's first ever Winter Olympics
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: called Metal. Steven Bradbury is the.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Champion and now there's Raygun. The thirty six year old
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: university lecturer with a PhD in breakdancing culture was Australia's
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: sole female team member in what the Olympics are calling
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: breaking a new sport in the twenty twenty four Games.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Very unlikely to reappear in future.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: Where you going to represent her country.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Raygun was terrible, terrible in the way you or I
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: would be terrible at breakdancing or pole vaulting or gymnastic
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: ribbon dancing or judo or weightlifting. That is, we would
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: be normal, normal levels of coordination, normal levels of skill,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: nothing wrong with that, but does normal belong at the
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: highest levels of athletic excellence to be televised live to
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: an audience of billions. I chatted to our sports writer
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Will Swanton and I've got to warn you we got
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: a serious case of the giggles during this interview. Will
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Swanton is a sports writer with The Australian. Will you
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: were at the Place de la Concord when Reagun made
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: her international debut. Tell me what you thought when you
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: saw her come on to the stage.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: Oh, just that name rey Gun.
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: Now, I've never heard of Raygun, like I actually not
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: being the world's most experienced.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: Breaking reporter, Not exactly.
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: No, And I actually said some of mate sitting next
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: to me, what time is gun? Ray On?
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: Not done? Raids brain? Gun?
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: So sitting there and they introduced the sixteen b girls
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: as they're called, and they don't like being called athletes.
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: Apparently they're all be girls in breaking and they're all
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: wearing the Americans and the French and the Japanese. They're
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: wearing their funky hip hop clothes. And then Ygun comes
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: out in the Australian team track suit. All right, And
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: that was the first time I thought, what's going on here?
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: What's this?
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: The first thing I thought was Alissa Heeley and the
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: women's one Day cricket team just like it looks like
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: the cricket in the four the or Sydney, all kind
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: of thing.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: That's all right.
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: And I literally thought she was going to get changed
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: before she paid me up to compete.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: She was just in her trackings.
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: So they have one on one battles as they call it,
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: which is basically just a dance on like Zoolander. And
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: so she came out and she was you couldn't say
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: she was breaking like the rest of them.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: First came the judge's verdict with zero. Then came the
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: social media verdict. I'm trying to see They said somebody
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Mama hopped out the soccer fan and came to the
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: stage and we're what is going on here?
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: So mad you from Australia and you've done lied on
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: your Olympics application and said that you know how to
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: break dance.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: Funny rabbit kank of one of those two. I got moved.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: So what you're gonna do?
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: I'm a worm a feeling that maybe we're not taking
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: the break dancing very seriously.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: She did a thing, though she did.
• 5:39
  Speaker 5: Mama turned up her moves.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: This I say, I love her originality though.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, for sure, I love ebit of this stuff
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: you ain't seen, but.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: At all.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Did you think at any point is this a spoof
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: or is this a joke? Or did you know from
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: the very beginning that actually this we were saying someone
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: who was just not of the same athletic standard as
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: the other competitors.
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: So she qualified through the Oceania Championships. She's the reigning
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: Oceania champion of breaking, so she earned her spot, and
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: so there's a tournament and the winner got to go
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: to the Olympics. And I'm fascinated. I can't see any
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: footage anywhere her in that final, Like I didn't think
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: it was a spoof, and I didn't think I just
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: thought that she I mean, it's funny, we're all trying
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: to find polite ways of putting it, but she just
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: wasn't up to that standard, like remotely up to that standard.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: After the event, but before it all went sour on
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: social media, Rachel Gunn came out to speak to the journos.
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: Just a lovely woman and she was thrilled with being
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: part of the Olympics and I just wanted to do
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: it my way and it's been such an honor and
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: what a treat and Breaking might never be here again.
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: Then it's just all been so much fun, and we're
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: looking at her thinking, oh my gosh, she's got no
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: idea yet of what's happening on social media. I think
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: it was a bad It was probably a bad look
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: for the Olympics. I don't mean just her performance. I
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: just think Breaking didn't suit the Olympics. It didn't fit
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: the Olympics.
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: I love Rachel and I think that what has occurred
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: on social media with trolls and keyboard warriors and taking
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: those comments and giving them airtime has been really disappointing.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Adamir Is, the boss of the Olympic team, complained publicly
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: that trolls were being unkind to Raygun.
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: She is the best breakdancer female that we have for Australia.
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: She has represented the Olympic team the Olympic spirit with
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: great enthusiasm and I absolutely love her courage, I love
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: her character and I feel very disappointed for her that
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: she has come under the attack that she has.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: And I think we could probably agree that some people
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: have been unkind to her, but will doesn't be AOC
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: and enemies have to take some responsibility for putting Rachel
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Gunn in a position where she was going to be
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: humiliated internationally. Don't bear some responsibility for that.
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: I'm sure Rachel is probably shattered. She was trying to
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: give everyone a bit of jo quity. But there's also
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: from Rachel's point of view, if you're for any athlete,
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: if you're willing to step up into something as big
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: as the Olympics, there's the chance that you could be
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: praised from the rooftops as some kind of sporting hero,
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: which everyone's happen to. But for any professional sport or
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: once you step out there, you're up for praise, to
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: be mocked, ridicule, criticized, told how great you are, told
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: that you work great. So that's all part and parcel
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: of us. There is definitely a part of it where
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: if the AOC sends an athlete out there, there has
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: to be some recognition of this is Olympic competition. It
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: has to be taken seriously. But I think they do
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: have to accept that once you be come an Olympic
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: athlete and you're in what was a high profile event,
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: you're up to be judged.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Coming up. It was an otherwise stunning games for Australia,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: so how did we do so well? In a fortnight,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: It'll be the Paralympics where everyone has an incredible backstory.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: We'll have all the action twenty four to seven at
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: the Australian dot com dot au for our subscribers. We'll
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: be back after this break. Olympic Games usually follow a
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: pattern for Australia. We start very strong in the pool
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: with gold medals and advance Australia fair coming from all directions.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: We all love Week one, but in the Olympiads of
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: recent memory, Weeks two and three are a little less
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: spine tingling As we watch ken You win the marathon,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Sweden win the high jump and China win everything else.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: By the closing ceremony, Australians are cheerfully celebrating a sixteenth
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: place in the sports win know when not very good
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: at Paris has been different. The golds have kept coming
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: in sports we don't normally prosper in road, cycling, skateboarding, BMX.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: This Olympics Australia has done incredibly well, mind blowing well.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: So what's changed that's incredible?
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: I think one thing that has happened a lot of
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: other countries have become stronger and they started taking medals
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: off the powerhouses as well, and the swimming it gets
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: and it's not all America winning the swimming. Well, my
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: impression is across all the sports, a lot more nations
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: are winning medals, which are taking some off Great Britain
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: and taking some of France and taking some off Japan.
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: So the top two America and China and miles ahead,
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: and then the rest of the top ten is a
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: bit of a bunch. Then we're just snuck through. But
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: like the men's doubles tennis at Roland Garos, it was
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: a clocks set, but they were John Piers and Matt Ebden,
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: a couple of thirty six year olds who live on
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: the same street in Perth. Wives are best friends, kids
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: play together, all that kind of stuff. Unseated doubles players
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: in a field that had Rafa and Adal and Alcahaz
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: playing together and all that kind of thing, and that
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: was just the unlikeliest gold medal. It's lucky for Australia
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: that the swimming is the first week because it's everyone
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: on Ohio from night one. So Arion one gold that
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: first night, and the women's relay one gold that first night,
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: so Australia's got two gold medals the first night, it's
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: all celebratory. Back at the village where was I think
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: if swimming was weak too, if we had the ass
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: the first week would be down and it wouldn't have
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: that same But I think they all fed each other
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: off a bit.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: The impression I get is that they just had a ball.
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: They're in Paris, the whole backdrop is one of the
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: great cities in the world.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: They've done incredibly well.
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: I think Anime is even in the way I think
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: she was a bit off the mark with defending Raygan,
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: because like some form of comment was always going to
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: happen once they sent her out there. But I think
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: in a way that was also an example of Anna
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: just airs deeply about all these athletes, and I'm sure
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: the way she is around the village just constantly encouraging them.
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: She's done great things as an Olympian, so they've got
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: someone there who's actually done it, who's spurring them on.
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: The impression I get is that she's whipped up this
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: fantastic team and spirit. I think that's been part of it.
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: But they should be incredibly proud of themselves.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: You can read all the nation's best news, sport, politics
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: and business anytime at the Australian dot com dot au