• The Picard ManeuverM
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    14830 days ago

    If the Olympics gave out gold medals for memes, this would get one.

  • @takeda
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    6430 days ago

    I eventually found her original performances, and frankly she is shown in memes to be much worse than she actually was.

    IMO she failed for two reasons:

    • she thought that instead of repeating the known moves she creates her own, trying to use them to tell some kind of story. Judges did not find appreciation for that
    • I think she was the oldest from all contestants (she is 36 and youngest contestants was 16, so less than half her age), so no way she could make things as dynamic as they did and her moves were slower
    • @BigPotato
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      7630 days ago

      Saying the words “Break dancing” and “she creates her own moves [as why she failed]”, to me, proves there’s zero need for that to be an Olympic sport.

      I’ve always kind of detested ‘judged’ sports, not the sports themselves but the idea of judging creative expression on a scale. Like, “We, the panel, have decreed that your moves were not funky fresh. Pop and lock your way to the locker room please.”

      • ALoafOfBread
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        1029 days ago

        That isn’t really how the judging worked though. First they had a huge panel of judges - 9 of them. And they judge them on 5 criteria: technique, vocabulary, execution, musicality, and originality. It is qualitative, but it’s a comparative rating system with actual guidelines - so they each simply have to decide who did each thing better:

        Maintaining physiological control while focusing on athleticism, form and spatial awareness.

        The range of moves that display variation and the quantity of moves, ideally with minimal repetition.

        The ability to land and perform moves smoothly, without falls or slips and while maintaining consistency and flow.

        The ability to stay on beat, syncing movements to the rhythm of the music.

        The capacity for improvisation, creativity and maintaining spontaneity with style and personality.

        I don’t think breaking necessarily needs to be in the olympics, but we’re past the point of only allowing sports (looking at you, dressage) and we do have other artistic events (rhythmic gymanstics and synchro swimming). And, the scoring system for breaking was reasonable and able to determine valid winners.

        • @[email protected]
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          128 days ago

          I was talking to my bud about the scoring system and how much of a sham it was she didn’t get at least a few for originality. Literally nobody else did some of the moves she did in the competition. I’m not saying they were good or bad but they sure as fuck were original.

          I sorta laughed when I heard she had a PhD in breakdancing before seeing the performance and ridiculed her after but she manages to do what nobody else has done to this degree and that is to push breakdancing forward in the human conscience. So maybe she doesn’t deserve to be ridiculed for that PhD.

        • @[email protected]
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          29 days ago

          While a simple solution for a popularity contest, it has great drawbacks when looking for techique comparison. Someone’s family may be bigger or louder than others, some people may have more fans in the audience, who can afford to attend will skew the vote, being an international event would mean that it’s likely the home team has the advantage as people from the host country have a greater opportunity to attend, some event crowds may be determined by time of day or by public transportation, and the audience may not see the whole (5 hour breakdancing) event and certainly won’t see the performers as well/as close as the judges would. Additionally the audience has so many new viewers during the Olympics that don’t know how hard certain moves/sequence of moves are while some easy flashy moves will wow a crowd every single time. None of those things show particularly compelling qualification to determine how technically good the performer/performance is.

      • @[email protected]
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        -129 days ago

        Yeah judges and the MC making live commentary like “Woo girl you got the moves!” And no actual rating system already makes it a popularity contest and its not like there is a wide expansive network of smaller competitions to find the actual best performers.

        It’s not a sport even though it could be. It’s an industry wanting representation so it can feel important.

    • @mynameisigglepiggle
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      2629 days ago

      I found her performances and to me it was absolutely not the moves that let her down. It was a complete lack of rhythm and flow.

      They were bad.

    • volvoxvsmarla
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      1429 days ago

      I have already invested more than I would into finding the performance (i.e. 5 mins), but all I find are videos talking about it. Do you have a link?

      • @buddascrayon
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        1329 days ago

        Wow, you are not wrong. It’s like it’s been fucking scrubbed from the internet. I may actually have to look for a torrent.

        • @[email protected]
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          529 days ago

          If you find it, please update this comment chain. I too am looking to see it but too lazy to search for longer than 5 mins.

      • @takeda
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        29 days ago

        It depends where you are if you are in Europe then it might be on YouTube on Eurosport channel.

        In US www.nbcolympics.com you get 30 minutes. Go to explore sports and select “breaking”. If you go to schedule on olympics.com you can find the points where she performed.

  • @Kaput
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    5430 days ago

    It seems very hard to find the whole video for the breakdancing

  • @Jeanschyso
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    3429 days ago

    People often say “we should send one normal person to show how hard what they’re doing actually is”

    This is what happens when we do

    • @dlok
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      228 days ago

      How do I search for the origin of this meme?

  • @YarHarSuperstar
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    29 days ago

    Disclaimer: take this with a grain of salt, it’s basically hearsay

    • @[email protected]
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      30 days ago

      I don’t believe a word of any of this, especially because of the unsourced line “From Reddit.”

      However, even if you were to lose every speck of skepticism the internet should have trained you to have, I still wouldn’t care because that’s fucking funny and the Olympics aren’t serious business.

      • @YarHarSuperstar
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        229 days ago

        That’s totally fair. I added a disclaimer to be a little safer in case it’s totally wrong.

    • @[email protected]
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      29 days ago

      There’s no mention of any of this in an article about how she qualified. In fact, you can go and watch her qualifications on YouTube and it looks like she did 1v1 battles against some mediocre opposition and won each time.

      From what I could find, her husband’s name is Samuel Free and I can’t find his name listed on either the AusBreaking or DanceSport Australia websites.

      Maybe some Lemmy sleuths can find something to confirm that something nefarious was going on here, but to me it just looks like the idea that her qualification was rigged is just a Reddit rumour. If anything, it looks more likely that she participated in a closed qualification system that didn’t allow for the best competitors to show up

    • JackbyDev
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      729 days ago

      Either way, I’m unsurprised that at least one contestant (especially in a subjective event) seemed like an odd pick the first time the event was held at the Olympics.

  • @Wild_Mastic
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    30 days ago

    Can anyone explain to me why this guy became a meme? I’m out of the loop

    • @Soggy
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      2830 days ago

      Most competitive shooters are using special equipment and he looks comparatively very casual.

    • @PassingDuchy
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      29 days ago

      Most Olympic athletes are young and wear fashion athletic clothes donated by endorsers who help pay them. In addition in the shooting category you’re (as I understand it) allowed a certain amount of tech to help you out. This man is older, didn’t wear the endorsed fashion clothes or the tech and won gold silver so he feels like a rare “every man” win in the Olympics. He is not an “every man” (believe he’s a decorated military and police man in his country), but a lot more people can relate to him winning gold silver than a 14 year old who’s been training for this since diapers in a fashion house outfit.

        • @PassingDuchy
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          729 days ago

          Oof I feel bad for his partner had no idea he was in pairs from the way he’s been talked/meme’d about…

        • @sheogorath
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          330 days ago

          He got silvers because of his teammate.