Running events have an objective measuring stick to compare performances (time). Bhutanese ultrarunner Kinzang Lhamo has been praised all over the media for running a race that would be at least 23 minutes too slow to qualify her for the Boston Marathon in her age group. Because of the universality slots, she was able to compete on the highest stage of the sport despite having a lifetime marathon PR slower than that of many moderately serious casual runners. Had it not been for the universality slots, her space would have gone to a 2:2x:xx marathoner somewhere with immense talent whose dedicated her whole life to the sport. Let’s face it, this performance was remarkably poor, over an hour and a half behind the winner.
Meanwhile, someone’s performance in a different sport (breaking) that has been judged as a poor performance becomes a viral running joke at the athletes expense? Breaking has considerable subjectivity in the scoring (judges give points for categories like “musicality” and “originality”).
Public opinion is funny in that it’s totally fine to laugh at and meme a poor performance in one sport and celebrate one in another.
Finally and secondarily, here’s my hot take - breaking has no place in the Olympics to begin with. Imagine what it would look like if Simone Biles, a real athlete (or really any competitive floor gymnast), decided for fun they wanted to compete in breaking to bring home some extra hardware.
It isn’t about bad performances being judged differently. It’s people overcoming expectations.
If you want to give Raygun due respect, don’t compare her to a universality athlete. People loved Eric the Eel. When countries are given chances they are not otherwise going to get, there is no expectation. What they do is celebrated.
Raygun is a representative from a major sporting nation. She qualified and earned her spot. Plus, it’s been revealed more recently that her husband is the team coach and one the judges at the Oceania qualifiers. She was one of the few who could support herself to compete.
She comes from a place with much more privilege. It’s an Australian thing to go for the underdog. Raygun might have painted herself as one, and she knew she was outmatched, but the general public don’t see her as a success story.
Our B-boy J-Attack probably went through a harder time to get to the same place, and he earned it through his skill. He looked like he belonged on the scene.
Raygun deserves to be treated better, but the way her image was managed was inconsistent. You can’t expect to be taken seriously if you’re also going to disrespect the new sport by having fun and creating silly moves that parody our country.