Afrigather 2024 Olympics: Australian Breakdancer Raygun Reacts Over Criticism After Controversial Routine
Raygun is breaking freed from the criticism.
After the Australian breakdancer (actual identify: Rachael Gunn) raised eyebrows for her efficiency on the Paris 2024 Olympics, she pushed again on the hate.
“I used to be by no means going to beat these women on what they do finest—their energy strikes,” Gunn defined throughout an Aug. 10 press convention, per ESPN. “What I carry is creativity.”
Raygun’s Aug. 9 efficiency went viral for its unconventionally easy strikes—which earned her zero factors from the judges. And whereas breaking is judged on creativity, persona, approach, selection, musicality and vocabulary, many customers on social media identified the shortage of problem concerned in Raygun’s routine. Nonetheless, Gunn maintains her talent.
“All of my strikes are unique,” Gunn added. “Creativity is absolutely vital to me. I am going on the market, and I present my artistry. Typically it speaks to the judges, and generally it would not. I do my factor, and it represents artwork. That’s what it’s about.”
The 36-year-old is on the very least accustomed to the ins-and-outs of breaking, and even lectures at her alma mater Macquarie College and, in accordance with her workers profile, is fascinated by analysis involving the “cultural politics” of the exercise.
And whereas she didn’t earn her nation any factors for her participation in Paris 2024, Australia’s Olympic chief additionally took to the breakdancer’s protection.
“I like Rachael,” Chief de mission Anna Meares emphasised at an Aug. 10 press convention. “And I believe that what has occurred on social media with trolls and keyboard warriors, and taking these feedback and giving them airtime, has been actually disappointing.”
Meares went on to element how Gunn—who has beforehand represented Australia on the World Breaking Championships—added to the nation’s Olympic staff.
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“Raygun is a fully beloved member of this Olympic staff,” Meares continued. “She has represented the Olympic staff, the Olympic spirit with nice enthusiasm. And I completely love her braveness. I like her character, and I really feel very upset for her, that she has come underneath the assault that she has.”
Preserve studying for extra controversies to return out of Paris 2024.
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Jordan Chiles Medal Controversy
After the U.S. gymnast gained bronze within the girls’s gymnastics particular person flooring train remaining, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation and Romanian finalists Ana Maria Barbosu and Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, who got here in fourth and fifth place, filed an attraction with the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport.
The Romanian aspect argued that an inquiry that Chiles’ coach had submitted on the competitors that had led to the athlete’s rating to be raised by 0.1 of a degree mustn’t have been granted as a result of it was submitted 4 seconds previous a one-minute deadline.
The court docket agreed and dominated that the U.S. athlete’s preliminary rating of 13.666 can be reinstated, a call additionally adopted later by the Worldwide Gymnastics Federation, which mentioned in an announcement that it had modified the rankings to place Barbosu in third place.
The Worldwide Olympics Committee then introduced that it “will reallocate the bronze medal to Ana Barbosu (Romania),” including, “We’re in contact with the NOC of Romania to debate the reallocation ceremony and with USOPC concerning the return of the bronze medal.”
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee says it plans to attraction the choice.
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Canada Boots Girls’s Soccer Coach
The 2024 Olympics had barely begun when Bev Priestman, head coach of the Canadian girls’s soccer staff, was faraway from her submit by Canada Soccer after her workers was accused of utilizing drones to spy on the New Zealand staff forward of their group stage match.
“Extra data has come to our consideration concerning earlier drone use in opposition to opponents, predating the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games,” Canada Soccer CEO and basic secretary Kevin Blue mentioned in a July 25 assertion explaining the choice. “In mild of those new revelations, Canada Soccer has made the choice to droop…Bev Priestman for the rest of the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games, and till the completion of our just lately introduced unbiased exterior evaluation.”
Priestman apologized, saying in an announcement, “I’m completely heartbroken for the gamers, and I wish to apologize from the underside of my coronary heart for the affect this case has had on all of them.”
The staff, which gained gold in Tokyo, is “a gaggle of people that care very a lot about sportsmanship and integrity,” she continued. “Because the chief of the staff on the sphere, I need to take accountability, and I plan to completely co-operate with the [Canadian Soccer Association] investigation.”
JASPER JACOBS/BELGA MAG/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
South Korea Mistaken for North Korea In the course of the Opening Ceremony
Because the boat carrying athletes from South Korea got here into view in the course of the July 26 Opening Ceremony, they had been incorrectly introduced in each French and English as being from the Democratic Folks’s Republic of Korea—which is North Korea.
South Korea, in the meantime, is the Republic of Korea.
In a July 27 assertion, the Worldwide Olympic Committee famous, “We deeply apologize for the error that occurred when introducing the Korean staff in the course of the Opening Ceremony broadcast.”
IOC President Thomas Bach additionally referred to as South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to apologize, per the chief govt’s workplace, which relayed that Yoon advised Bach the individuals of South Korea had been “very shocked and embarrassed” by the error. An IOC spokesperson referred to as the error an “operational mistake” that was “clearly deeply regrettable.”
Parade order is decided alphabetically in accordance with the host nation’s language—minus Greece, which at all times goes first as the house of the primary Olympics, and the host nation goes final. South Korea was the forty eighth nation within the Parade of Nations, whereas North Korea was 153rd.
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The Flawed Type of Splash
British commentator Bob Ballard was pulled from Eurostar’s Olympics protection for making a comment that was extensively derided as sexist after Australian swimmers Mollie O’Callaghan, Shayna Jack, Emma McKeon and Meg Harris gained gold within the 4×100-meter freestyle relay.
“Nicely, the ladies simply ending off,” Ballard mentioned following the race. “You understand what girls are like…hanging round, doing their make-up.”
His co-commentator Lizzie Simmonds replied, “Outrageous, Bob. A few of the males are doing that as effectively.”
Calling his remark “inappropriate,” Eurostar mentioned in a July 29 assertion Ballard had been eliminated with “fast impact” from additional protection.
The veteran sportscaster promptly apologized.
“The feedback I made in the course of the Australian freestyle relay victory ceremony on Saturday have triggered some offence,” he wrote on X. “It was by no means my intention to upset or belittle anybody and, if I did, I apologise. I’m an enormous advocate of girls’s sport.”
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A Rumor That Went Off the Deep Finish
After hypothesis {that a} too-shallow pool inside La Protection Enviornment was liable for slower-than-expected instances in swimming, the athletes torpedoed the concept that the water wasn’t deep sufficient to smash information.
“I believe it’s very a fable,” Workforce USA’s Regan Smith, who swam away from Paris with 5 medals, advised NBCOlympics.com after she and Gretchen Walsh, Lilly King and Torri Huske set a brand new world file within the girls’s 4×100-meter medley. “I believe at first individuals had been very conscious of [the lack of new records]… So, I believe that triggered some chatter, like, ‘Oh, is it the pool that is doing this?’ However I believe because the meet went on, individuals received used to it, after which I believe they received extra comfy with it, after which we began seeing some actually quick swims.”
Added four-time medalist Walsh, “I believe a lot of what the Olympics is, and what it represents, makes any pool that it is at really feel sort of gradual. As a result of you’ve gotten a lot strain on your self that it’s laborious at your one hundred pc finest.”
Ana Vieira/Instagram
Swimmer Despatched Dwelling for “Indiscipline”
Brazilian swimmer Ana Carolina Vieira was despatched house after, in accordance with the Brazilian Olympic Committee, she dedicated two “acts of indiscipline”: She left the Olympic Village with boyfriend/teammate Gabriel Santos with out permission, the BOC mentioned, after performing “in a disrespectful and aggressive method” in response to a “technical choice made by the Brazilian Swimming Workforce committee” concerning the 4x100m freestyle relay.
In a video titled “How a communication failure destroyed my Olympic dream,” Vieira lamented what occurred however mentioned, “every little thing goes to be solved on the proper time.”
Luana Alonso/Instagram
One other Swimmer Kicked Out for “Inappropriate Ambiance”
The Paraguayan Olympic Committee requested swimmer Luana Alonso to go away the Video games, alleging in an announcement that she had created an “inappropriate environment on the Coronary heart of Workforce Paraguay.”
“We thank her for continuing as instructed,” the assertion continued, “because it was of her personal free will that she didn’t spend the night time within the Athletes’ Village.”
The Southern Methodist College pupil had seemingly already returned to Texas when she wrote on Instagram Story (translated from Spanish) Aug. 5, “I simply needed to make it clear that I used to be by no means eliminated or expelled from wherever, cease spreading false data. I don’t need to give any assertion however I’m not going to let lies have an effect on me both.”
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MyKayla Skinner vs. Simone Biles
Simone Biles had already let it’s identified what she considered Tokyo teammate MyKayla Skinner‘s criticism of the U.S. gymnastics staff chosen to go to Paris—and Skinner had apologized for saying in a since-deleted video that “the expertise and the depth simply is not like what it was once” and that “clearly a variety of women do not work as laborious.”
However after the 2024 squad gained staff gold, Biles captioned a photograph of the athletes, “Lack of expertise, lazy, olympic champions”—an obvious jab at Skinner’s unique remark.
On Aug. 6, Skinner reiterated in an Instagram video that she had “poorly” articulated her unique level. However, she added, the cyberbullying she and her household had been topic to—fallout from her cyberfeud with Biles—had gotten out of hand.
She pleaded with the seven-time gold medalist “to please put a cease to this. Please ask your followers to cease.”
Sheng Jiapeng/China Information Service/VCG by way of Getty Pictures
Beam In a Little Noise, Please
Neither Biles nor Suni Lee medaled in beam this yr after each gymnasts fell off the equipment throughout their remaining routines.
Afterward, Biles commented on the unusually quiet surroundings throughout their penultimate occasion in Paris.
“It was actually bizarre and awkward,” the athlete, who earned bronze on beam in Tokyo, advised the Related Press. “We have requested a number of instances if we will have some music, or some background noise. I am probably not positive what occurred there, however yeah, not our favourite. None of us appreciated it.”
In response to the GOAT’s grievance, an Worldwide Gymnastics Federation mentioned the environment was “a part of the game presentation plan at Paris 2024.”
Lee famous that “the strain was undoubtedly on” and “lots of people had been undoubtedly feeling it.”
She puzzled if it was so quiet the close by photographers may hear her respiratory.
“It provides to the stress,” Lee mentioned, “simply because it’s such as you, sure, you are the one one up there. So I used to be feeling the strain.”
Xavier Laine/Getty Pictures
Gymnastics Scoring Shocker
Jordan Chiles seemingly completed out of the working for a medal when she accomplished her flooring train remaining routine and acquired a rating of 13.666, Romania’s Ana Barbosu forward of her in third place with a rating of 13.700.
However after Workforce USA filed a rating inquiry on Chiles’ behalf and her efficiency was additional reviewed by the judges, her begin worth was elevated by one-tenth of a degree. In consequence, her rating was subsequently bumped as much as 13.766. Which means, she received the bronze and Barbosu—who was already waving her nation’s flag in celebration—left the world in tears.
Afterward, Barbosu posted a video of herself competing and wrote, “Thanks to everybody who inspired me earlier than, throughout, and after the competitors.”
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5,000 Meters Scoring Shocker
Medal changes have not been confined to the gymnastics area.
Kenyan runner Religion Kipyegon was initially disqualified for seeming to jostle Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia in the course of the girls’s 5,000 meters on the Stade de France on Aug. 5, negating her second-place end.
“I’ve by no means seen something like that, in an Olympic remaining that went on for thus lengthy,” commentator Kara Goucher, a two-time Olympian, mentioned on the printed, noting that the 2 girls additionally appeared to trade heated phrases. “You see slightly little bit of elbow, you see slightly little bit of frustration, however that was many strides and scolding.”
It wasn’t till the wee hours of Aug. 6 that Kipyegon discovered her silver medal had been reinstated. The Olympic Jury of Enchantment dominated that, whereas there had been “vital contact” between her and Tsegay, “the incident didn’t warrant a disqualification.”
With that, Italy’s Nadia Battocletti—the fourth-place finisher ran into bronze place by the disqualification—was re-relegated to fourth.
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Swimming Disqualifications That Stood
Two athletes’ hopes of a medal had been dashed after they unwittingly broke guidelines mid-swim, that means they did not even know they had been out till they completed their races.
Nice Britain’s Luke Greenbank completed first in his 200-meter backstroke warmth however was disqualified for staying underwater for additional than the utmost 15 meters after first diving in.
“Win or lose I’ve at all times been my very own harshest critic however generally you’ve simply received to take it because it comes,” he wrote on Instagram Aug. 1. “I can take satisfaction in the truth that I do know I used to be in nice form coming into these video games after a tricky few years, however this may inspire me to return again stronger.”
A technical error additionally knocked Alex Walsh off the 200-meter particular person medley podium after she completed within the bronze place. As she approached the wall over the past leg of her backstroke, she made an unlawful flip by beginning to flip out of place earlier than she tapped the wall and launched into her breaststroke.
“Nonetheless proud,” Walsh wrote on Instagram Aug. 6, thanking her supporters a couple of days after the race. “Regardless of the DQ, this Olympics has been an expertise that has left me feeling joyful and fulfilled, and I’ll cherish that endlessly. In spite of everything, every little thing occurs for a purpose and there’s a lot extra to be enthusiastic about for me on this sport.”
Ezra Shaw/Getty Pictures
One thing within the Water?
Regardless of $1.53 billion having been budgeted to wash up the perennially polluted Seine, studies swirled for months main as much as the Paris Video games about whether or not it will be secure sufficient to carry the swimming leg of the triathlons and the 10-kilometer marathons within the river.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo went for a swim July 17 and declared France’s most well-known physique of water good to go—but it surely’s been sort of a s–t present for the reason that Olympics started.
On Monday, July 29, swims for the triathletes to familiarize themselves with the Seine had been canceled, officers citing poor water high quality ranges brought on by run-off from the weekend’s heavy rains (which noticeably began in the course of the July 26 Opening Ceremony).
The lads’s triathlon was then postponed a day and rescheduled to comply with the ladies’s occasion on July 31 after organizers deemed micro organism ranges too excessive for a secure swim.
Each triathlons had been held July 31, day-of assessments discovering that E. coli and intestinal enterococci ranges had been low sufficient to qualify the water as “glorious high quality,” per the European Union’s Bathing Water Directive.
However hypothesis that the water wasn’t secure resumed after two athletes who competed within the triathlon dropped out of the mixed-relay competitors, citing respective sicknesses (neither of which have been definitively linked to swimming within the Seine).
The ladies’s and males’s 10km are nonetheless scheduled for Aug. 8 and 9, however practices had been canceled Aug. 6 after assessments confirmed micro organism ranges had been as soon as once more too excessive.
Alex Gottschalk/DeFodi Pictures by way of Getty Pictures
Australian Area Hockey Participant Arrested
Australian discipline hockey participant Tom Craig publicly apologized after being arrested for trying to purchase cocaine in Paris two days after the staff’s quarterfinal loss to the Netherlands.
“I’d firstly wish to apologize for what has occurred during the last 24 hours,” he mentioned at an Aug. 7 press convention, per the Australian Related Press. “My actions are my very own and by no approach mirror the values of my household, my teammates, my buddies, the game and the Australian Olympic staff. I’ve embarrassed you all and I am actually sorry.”
In an announcement, an Australian Olympic Committee official referred to as Tom “a great one that had made a poor choice” and mentioned the staff would help him if he wanted assist. However, the official added, the athlete was shedding all of his remaining Olympic privileges, efficient instantly.
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