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.
Marathon>>>Breakdancing. Levels mate.
I’ve seen countless amateur street performers with way more skill and effort than the PhD in breakdancing meme Raygun.
If we’re gonna call them both Olympic sports they should be treated with similar respect. They get the same medals and compete in the same games.
Perhaps breaking is on such a different “level” it doesn’t actually belong in the Olympics.
Similarly, I personally know dozens of random everyday women who can run faster marathons. Doesn’t make either performance funny or worthy of celebration.