WEBVTT - Raygun and the Olympic blame game

0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:08.520
<v Speaker 1>You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker

0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:12.760
<v Speaker 1>every morning to hear the latest episode. Just say play

0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:22.120
<v Speaker 1>the news from The Australian. From the Australian, here's what's

0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:25.079
<v Speaker 1>on the Front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Monday, August twelve.

0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:33.080
<v Speaker 1>Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison will be cross examined by

0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:36.280
<v Speaker 1>Council for Brittany Higgins when he appears as a witness

0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:40.320
<v Speaker 1>for the senator suing Higgins for defamation former Defense Minister

0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:44.680
<v Speaker 1>Linda Reynolds. We'll have live coverage from the WA Supreme

0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:47.920
<v Speaker 1>Court all week at the Australian dot Com Dot you.

0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:54.880
<v Speaker 1>A twenty seven year old woman took her life after

0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:59.640
<v Speaker 1>debt collectors for the National Disability Insurance Scheme pursued her

0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:03.360
<v Speaker 1>over for a twenty eight thousand dollars debt. That's according

0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:11.200
<v Speaker 1>to her parents. In an exclusive for The Australian Today,

0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:17.800
<v Speaker 1>Australian Olympic boss Anna Meears has lashed trolls for mocking

0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:23.840
<v Speaker 1>breakdowncer Rachel raygun Gum after her startling performance in the

0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:27.560
<v Speaker 1>last days of the Paris Olympics. So where does the

0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:48.400
<v Speaker 1>responsibility lie for an Australian athlete's global humiliation. Every Olympic

0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:52.040
<v Speaker 1>Games turns up a folk hero. We've had Eddie b Eagle,

0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:55.640
<v Speaker 1>the British ski jumper who in nineteen eighty eight finished

0:01:55.640 --> 0:02:06.000
<v Speaker 1>a resounding last but became a crowd sensation. Or Eddie

0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:08.800
<v Speaker 1>the Eel who in two thousand Sydney Games swam the

0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:12.400
<v Speaker 1>slowest one hundred meters freestyle in Olympic history, one of

0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:15.160
<v Speaker 1>his first dips in a fifty meter pool to a

0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:21.440
<v Speaker 1>roaring standing ovation. Well, I thought I'd seen everything in

0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:21.920
<v Speaker 1>the Olympics.

0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:22.680
<v Speaker 2>Rooming call.

0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:28.120
<v Speaker 1>Speed skater Stephen Bradbury, who I would defend as a

0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:32.400
<v Speaker 1>master tactician art who Australians embraced for the pure dumb

0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:36.480
<v Speaker 1>luck of winning a race after everybody else fell over.

0:02:38.040 --> 0:02:40.760
<v Speaker 2>Bradbury way off the pace and Lee is now the

0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:43.280
<v Speaker 2>challenger for owner Lee coming up on the outside when

0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:45.720
<v Speaker 2>Lee has gone down and Bradberry, who was in.

0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:48.280
<v Speaker 1>A perfect spot, states over the line.

0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:51.840
<v Speaker 2>Australia's first ever went to Olympics gold medal.

0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.240
<v Speaker 3>Stephen Bradbury is the.

0:02:54.360 --> 0:03:06.160
<v Speaker 1>Champion, and now there's Reagum, the thirty six year old

0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:11.120
<v Speaker 1>university lecturer with a PhD in breakdancing culture, was Australia's

0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.600
<v Speaker 1>sole female team member in what the Olympics are calling

0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:18.160
<v Speaker 1>breaking a new sport in the twenty twenty four Games.

0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:21.079
<v Speaker 1>Very unlikely to reappear in future.

0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:23.320
<v Speaker 3>Will you gunn represent her country?

0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:28.000
<v Speaker 1>Ygun was terrible, terrible in the way you or I

0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:32.200
<v Speaker 1>would be terrible at breakdancing or pole vaulting or gymnastic

0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:36.200
<v Speaker 1>ribbon dancing or judo or weightlifting. That is, we would

0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:40.680
<v Speaker 1>be normal, normal levels of coordination, normal levels of skill.

0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:45.440
<v Speaker 1>Nothing wrong with that. But does normal belong at the

0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:49.760
<v Speaker 1>highest levels of athletic excellence to be televised live to

0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:59.040
<v Speaker 1>an audience of billions? I chattered to our sportswriter, Will Swanton,

0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:01.720
<v Speaker 1>and I've got to warn you we got a serious

0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:06.640
<v Speaker 1>case of the giggles during this interview. Will Swanton is

0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:09.040
<v Speaker 1>a sports writer with The Australian. Will you were at

0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:13.000
<v Speaker 1>the Place de la Concord when Reagun made her international debut.

0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:15.960
<v Speaker 1>Tell me what you thought when you saw her come

0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:17.000
<v Speaker 1>onto the stage?

0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:19.480
<v Speaker 2>Oh?

0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:24.440
<v Speaker 3>Just that name Raygun. Now I never heard of Raygun,

0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:29.200
<v Speaker 3>Like I actually not being the world's most experienced breaking reporter,

0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:33.800
<v Speaker 3>Not exactly. No, And I actually said some of mate

0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:38.120
<v Speaker 3>sitting next to me, what time is gun ray On Gun.

0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:42.960
<v Speaker 3>Ray It's ray Gun. So sitting there and they introduced

0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:46.919
<v Speaker 3>the sixteen be Girls as they're called, know that like

0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:49.719
<v Speaker 3>being called athletes. Apparently they're all be Girls in Breaking

0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:53.359
<v Speaker 3>and they're all wearing the Americans and the French and

0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:56.680
<v Speaker 3>their Japanese. They're wearing their funky hip hop clothes. And

0:04:56.720 --> 0:05:01.800
<v Speaker 3>then Raygun comes out in the Australian team track suit,

0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:04.760
<v Speaker 3>all right, And that was the first time I thought,

0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:08.000
<v Speaker 3>what's going on here? What's this? The first thing I

0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:13.400
<v Speaker 3>thought was Alissa Healey and the women's One Day cricket team,

0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:16.840
<v Speaker 3>just like it looked like the cricket in before that,

0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:19.839
<v Speaker 3>well Sydney, all kind of thing. But that's all right,

0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:22.640
<v Speaker 3>And I literally thought she was going to get changed.

0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:24.680
<v Speaker 3>Before she came out to compete, she was just in

0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:28.600
<v Speaker 3>her trackings. So they have one on one battles as

0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:32.000
<v Speaker 3>they call it, which is basically just a dance on

0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:37.000
<v Speaker 3>like Zoolander. And so she came out and she was

0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:42.920
<v Speaker 3>you couldn't say she was breaking like the rest of them.

0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:49.320
<v Speaker 1>First came the judges verdict with zero. Then came the

0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:53.880
<v Speaker 1>social media verdict. I'm trying to see, they says somebody,

0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:56.000
<v Speaker 1>mama hopped out the soccer man and came to the

0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:58.640
<v Speaker 1>stage and we're what is going on here?

0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:02.280
<v Speaker 3>So Massy, you're from Australian and you've done lied on

0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:04.560
<v Speaker 3>your Olympics application and said that you know how to

0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:07.560
<v Speaker 3>break dance bunny rabbit kanker with one of those two

0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:08.679
<v Speaker 3>I got moves.

0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:11.159
<v Speaker 1>So what you're gonna do? I'm a worm of.

0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:13.120
<v Speaker 3>A feeling that maybe we're not taking the break dancing

0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:13.880
<v Speaker 3>very seriously.

0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:16.520
<v Speaker 2>She did.

0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:21.800
<v Speaker 1>Mama turned up her moves. This I say, I love

0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.840
<v Speaker 1>her originality though, yeah, yeah, for sure, I love fortibut

0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:26.159
<v Speaker 1>of this stuff. You ain't seen.

0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:27.159
<v Speaker 2>But at all.

0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:32.280
<v Speaker 1>Did you think at any point is this a spoof

0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:35.279
<v Speaker 1>or is this a joke or did you know from

0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:37.960
<v Speaker 1>the very beginning that actually this we were seeing someone

0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:40.840
<v Speaker 1>who was just not have the same athletic standard as

0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:42.400
<v Speaker 1>the other competitors.

0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:46.880
<v Speaker 3>So she qualified through the Oceania Championships. She's the reigning

0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:52.159
<v Speaker 3>Oceania champion of breaking so she earned her spot and

0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:55.040
<v Speaker 3>she won. So there's a tournament and the winner got

0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:57.440
<v Speaker 3>together the Olympics and I'm fascinated. I can't see any

0:06:57.440 --> 0:07:01.560
<v Speaker 3>pottage anyway. Her final, Like, I didn't think it was

0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:04.040
<v Speaker 3>a spoof, and I didn't think of I just thought

0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:06.440
<v Speaker 3>that she. I mean, it's funny, we're all trying to

0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:08.680
<v Speaker 3>find polite ways of putting it. But she just wasn't

0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:11.160
<v Speaker 3>up to that standard, like remotely up to that standard.

0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:14.960
<v Speaker 1>After the event, but before it all went sour on

0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:19.600
<v Speaker 1>social media, Rachel Gunn came out to speak to the journos.

0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:23.880
<v Speaker 3>Just a lovely woman, and she was thrilled. We've been

0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:25.640
<v Speaker 3>part of the Olympics and I just wanted to do

0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:28.080
<v Speaker 3>it my way and it's been such an honor and

0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:30.600
<v Speaker 3>what a treat and Breaking might never be here again,

0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:32.880
<v Speaker 3>and it's just all been so much fun. And we're

0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:35.600
<v Speaker 3>looking at her thinking, oh my gosh, she's got no

0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:39.640
<v Speaker 3>idea yet of what's happening on social media. I think

0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:41.920
<v Speaker 3>it was a bad It was probably a bad look

0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:45.760
<v Speaker 3>for the Olympics. I don't mean just her performance. I

0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:48.520
<v Speaker 3>just think Breaking didn't suit the Olympics. It didn't fit

0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:49.680
<v Speaker 3>the Olympics.

0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:54.720
<v Speaker 2>I love Rachel, and I think that what has occurred

0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:59.560
<v Speaker 2>on social media with trolls and keyboard warriors and taking

0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:03.360
<v Speaker 2>those coins and giving them airtime has been really disappointing.

0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:07.360
<v Speaker 1>Animir is the boss of the Olympic team complained publicly

0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:10.720
<v Speaker 1>that trolls Will being unkind to raygun She is.

0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:14.120
<v Speaker 2>The best breakdancer female that we have for Australia. She

0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:17.760
<v Speaker 2>has represented the Olympic team the Olympic spirit with great

0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:23.960
<v Speaker 2>enthusiasm and I absolutely love her courage, I love her

0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:28.280
<v Speaker 2>character and I feel very disappointed for her that she

0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:30.280
<v Speaker 2>has come under the attack that she has.

0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:32.840
<v Speaker 1>And I think we could probably agree that some people

0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:33.880
<v Speaker 1>have been unkind to.

0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:36.600
<v Speaker 3>Her, but Will doesn't.

0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:40.600
<v Speaker 1>The AOC and animirs have to take some responsibility for

0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:43.840
<v Speaker 1>putting Rachel Gunn in a position where she was going

0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:47.240
<v Speaker 1>to be humiliated internationally. Don't bear some responsibility for that.

0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:50.280
<v Speaker 3>I'm sure Rachel is probably shattered. She was trying to

0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:52.960
<v Speaker 3>give everyone a bit of a job quity. But there's

0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:56.600
<v Speaker 3>also from Rachel's point of view, if you're for any athlete,

0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.360
<v Speaker 3>if you're willing to step up into something as big

0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:02.280
<v Speaker 3>as the Olympic, there's the chance that you could be

0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:06.200
<v Speaker 3>praised from the roof pops as some kind of sporting hero,

0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:09.959
<v Speaker 3>which everyone's happen to do. But for any professional sport

0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:14.560
<v Speaker 3>or once you step out there, you're up for praise

0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:19.600
<v Speaker 3>to be mocked ridiculed, criticized, told how great you are,

0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:21.680
<v Speaker 3>told that you were great. So that's all part and

0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:24.080
<v Speaker 3>parcel of us. There is definitely a part of it

0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:27.880
<v Speaker 3>where if the AOC sends an athlete out there, there

0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:31.600
<v Speaker 3>has to be some recognition of this is Olympic competition.

0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:35.280
<v Speaker 3>It has to be taken seriously. But I think they

0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:38.920
<v Speaker 3>do have to accept that once you become an Olympic

0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:42.640
<v Speaker 3>athlete and you're in what was a high profile event,

0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:44.040
<v Speaker 3>you're up to be judged.

0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:49.719
<v Speaker 1>Coming up. It was an otherwise stunning games for Australia,

0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:53.480
<v Speaker 1>So how did we do so well? In a fortnite

0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:57.439
<v Speaker 1>it'll be the Paralympics where everyone has an incredible backstory.

0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:00.240
<v Speaker 1>We'll have all the action twenty four to seven at

0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:04.280
<v Speaker 1>the Australian dot com dot au for our subscribers. We'll

0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:23.880
<v Speaker 1>be back after this break. Olympic Games usually follow a

0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:26.720
<v Speaker 1>pattern for Australia. We start very strong in the pool

0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:30.600
<v Speaker 1>with gold medals and advance Australia fair coming from all directions.

0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:34.480
<v Speaker 1>We all love Week one, but in the Olympiads of

0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:37.560
<v Speaker 1>recent memory, Weeks two and three are a little less

0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:41.040
<v Speaker 1>spine tingling. As we watch ken you win the marathon,

0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:44.559
<v Speaker 1>Sweden win the high jump and China win everything else.

0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:49.880
<v Speaker 1>By the closing ceremony, Australians are cheerfully celebrating a sixteenth

0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:52.760
<v Speaker 1>place in the sports we know when not very good.

0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:58.400
<v Speaker 1>At Paris has been different. The golds have kept coming

0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:05.000
<v Speaker 1>in sports we don't normally prosper in road, cycling, skateboarding, bremx.

0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:13.600
<v Speaker 1>This Olympics, Australia has done incredibly well, mind blowingly well.

0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:17.120
<v Speaker 1>So what's changed that's incredible?

0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:19.600
<v Speaker 3>I think one thing that has happened a lot of

0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:23.840
<v Speaker 3>other countries have become stronger and they started taking medals

0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:28.560
<v Speaker 3>off the powerhouses as well. And the swimming it gets

0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:31.280
<v Speaker 3>and it's not all America winning the swimming. Well, my

0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:35.079
<v Speaker 3>impression is across all the sports, a lot more nations

0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:38.440
<v Speaker 3>are winning medals, which are taking some off Great Britain

0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:40.640
<v Speaker 3>and taking some off France and taking some off Japan.

0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:44.160
<v Speaker 3>So the top two America and China are miles ahead,

0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:46.880
<v Speaker 3>and then the rest of the top ten is a

0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:49.200
<v Speaker 3>bit of a bunch and we're just snuck through. But

0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:52.199
<v Speaker 3>like the men's doubles tennis at Roland Garros, it was

0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:56.120
<v Speaker 3>a class, but they were John Piers and Matt Ebden,

0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:58.640
<v Speaker 3>a couple of thirty six year olds who live on

0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:02.120
<v Speaker 3>the same street in Perth. Wives are best friends, kids

0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:05.960
<v Speaker 3>play together, all that kind of stuff. Unseated doubles players

0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:10.280
<v Speaker 3>in a field that had Raffa Adal and Alcoraz playing

0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:12.360
<v Speaker 3>together and all that kind of thing, and that was

0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:16.560
<v Speaker 3>just the unlikeliest gold medal. It's lucky for Australia that

0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:20.520
<v Speaker 3>the swimming is the first week because it's everyone on

0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:24.960
<v Speaker 3>a high from night one. So ari Arm one gold

0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:28.200
<v Speaker 3>that first night and the women's relay one gold that

0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:31.160
<v Speaker 3>first night. So Australia's got two gold medals the first night.

0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:34.840
<v Speaker 3>It's all celebratory. Back at the village where was I

0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:36.560
<v Speaker 3>think if swimming was weak too, if we had the

0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:38.800
<v Speaker 3>ass the first week would be down and it wouldn't

0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:40.920
<v Speaker 3>have that same But I think they all fed each

0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:42.840
<v Speaker 3>other off a bit. The impression I get is that

0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:45.720
<v Speaker 3>they just had a ball. They're in Paris, the old

0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:48.120
<v Speaker 3>backdrop is one of the great cities in the world.

0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:51.640
<v Speaker 3>They've done incredibly well. I think Anime even in the

0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:54.160
<v Speaker 3>way I think she was a bit off the mark

0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:59.800
<v Speaker 3>with defending ray Gan, because like some form of comment

0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:02.240
<v Speaker 3>was always going to happen once they sent her out there.

0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:03.920
<v Speaker 3>But I think in a way that was also an

0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:08.040
<v Speaker 3>example of Anna just hears deeply about all these athletes,

0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:10.800
<v Speaker 3>and I'm sure the way she is around the village

0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:15.600
<v Speaker 3>just constantly encouraging them. She's done great things as an Olympian,

0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.840
<v Speaker 3>so they've got someone there who's actually done it, who's

0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:20.960
<v Speaker 3>spurring them on. The impression I get is that she's

0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:25.680
<v Speaker 3>whipped up this fantastic team and spirit. I think that's

0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:27.640
<v Speaker 3>been part of it. But Anna and everyt they should

0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:29.640
<v Speaker 3>be incredibly proud of themselves.

0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:37.640
<v Speaker 1>Will Swanton is a sports writer with The Australian. You

0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:40.679
<v Speaker 1>can check out his reporting right now at the Australian

0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:42.000
<v Speaker 1>dot com dot au