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Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!

We are the champions

Adrienne Beaumont
the Challenged
Published in
2 min readAug 12, 2024
Photo by Ilja Tulit on Unsplash

August 13: Katy Lin wants to know “What are your favorite Olympic sports to watch? Is there a particular athlete who’s made an impression on you?”

I love watching the swimming, diving, water polo, rowing, canoeing, kayaking and triathlon. Anything in the water. I was very proud of all those Aussie gold medalists who beat the American and Chinese athletes. We have a much smaller population from which to draw our athletes.

But the particular athlete who’s impressed me the most in the Paris Olympics 2024 is Rachel Gunn aka Raygun. I love her!

Rachel tried to bring the storytelling back into her routine, her creative moves were not appreciated by the judges (who the hell are they anyway?) and she scored zero points. One of the judges said they were not bad, just the other competitors were much better as break dancing has a comparative scoring system which is not the case in other sports like diving and gymnastics.

By allowing break dancing into the Olympics, it is taking away the self-determination and creativity of break dancing, placing more emphasis on points and moves rather than creativity and story telling. Rachel along with many others feel that break dancing has lost its meaning and become too “sportified”.

Apparently break dancing and skateboarding have been introduced to the Olympics to attract a younger more marginalised generation. I mean, not everyone can be a champion swimmer.

I would have to award her points for her creativity and showcasing the Aussie attitude of “havin’ a go”. Reminds me of a certain Crocodile Dundee in NYC. “You call that a knife? THIS is a knife!”

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the Challenged
the Challenged

Published in the Challenged

This publication is a place for writers who enjoy a challenge.

Adrienne Beaumont
Adrienne Beaumont

Written by Adrienne Beaumont

I’m Australian. I love to travel and write about my adventures.I write about my daily life as a mother and grandmother as well as my past experiences.

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