Brutal truth behind Rachael ‘Raygun’ Gunn’s Olympic breakdancing carnage

Raygun is facing a global pile on over her Olympic breakdancing efforts – but there’s one important factor we missed in the outcry.

OPINION

You know when a child plays an instrument and it’s out of tune, but you smile through the screeching sound and tell them they’ve done a good job anyway?

That’s kind of how I felt watching Rachael “Raygun” Gunn breakdancing at the Olympics.

I don’t have to tell you it was bad. Unless you just landed from Mars, you’ve seen it.

I had the pleasure of watching it live. Thankfully, by that hour, I was mildly inebriated and able to enjoy the performance for its sheer hilarity.

Was it real? Was I meant to clap for my country even though I wasn’t sure what I just watched?

If there’s one upside to it all, it has probably ensured that the fake sport of breakdancing will never return to the Olympics.

But I couldn’t help thinking that this is what happens when you don’t tell someone they should find a different hobby.

’I couldn’t help thinking that this is what happens when you don’t tell someone they should find a different hobby’. Picture: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

‘We now live in a world where everyone gets a participation medal’ Picture: Elsa/Getty Images

We now live in a world where everyone gets a participation medal.

Regardless of how good or bad you are at whatever the endeavour is, be it running or swimming or breakdancing, everyone apparently has to be recognised for giving it a go even if they’re clearly rubbish.

It generally starts with children.

Everyone gets a ribbon at the school sports day.

The AFL, in 2014, extended its no-scoring policy in Victoria from under-8s to under-10s.

An AFL executive said at the time the change was designed to provide children with “an enjoyment philosophy rather than a winning philosophy”.

Except that kids already enjoy playing sport – and they’re smart enough to realise that all sport is about winning.

The same policy is applied to junior rugby league, soccer and rugby union competitions across the country – no ladders, finals or scores.

You can’t really call it a competition if you’re not competing for anything.

It’s just not real life. There must, in everything, be winners and losers.

The consequence of all this pussyfooting is that everyone believes they’re good at everything and people no longer build resilience.

’Setting people up for failure is much more unfair than being honest with them’. Picture: Elsa/Getty Images

Children spend their entire lives being told that it’s trying that counts and being given participation trophies – and then they get a rude shock when they venture out into the big bad world.

You can’t just try your best at work. And when someone points out that they did something wrong or that perhaps this isn’t for them, they don’t know how to handle it because they’ve always been told they’re great at everything.

There are some things with which you will struggle – some at which you will be downright awful. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

We can’t all be good at everything. I gave cricket a go in Year 4 and was no good, so I gave that up and resolved to stick to the sidelines.

The experience of criticism and losing teaches disappointment and resilience.

We are now all too afraid to be honest in a world where feelings trump facts.

Someone, at some point in her breakdancing career, should have taken Raygun aside and told her that it’s great she’s giving it a go, but she’s not going to win us a gold medal.

Caleb Bond says we’re ‘all too afraid to be honest in a world where feelings trump facts’. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

We don’t have those conversations anymore because we’re too afraid of how someone might react to honesty – even though that honesty is ultimately in their best interests.

How many times have you seen a woman talking to a group of people, and then when you talk to her, she has red lipstick smeared across her front teeth?

Every single one of those people in that group saw the lipstick and none of them told her. God knows how many people have looked and judged but said nothing because they’re worried it will embarrass her.

To hell with the embarrassment. I’ll always tell her there’s lipstick on her teeth so she doesn’t embarrass herself any further.

If someone had simply brought Raygun down a peg or two earlier, she wouldn’t now be facing a global pile on.

Setting people up for failure is much more unfair than being honest with them.

Originally published as Brutal truth behind Rachael ‘Raygun’ Gunn’s Olympic breakdancing carnage