Shooting Blanks in Defence of Raygun

Raygun just won’t go away, will she? Here from Tanya Plibersek:

From Jessica Fox to Nina Kennedy, it’s not hard to assume these athletes are an entirely different species from those of us watching at home. And in a way – they are. The diets, training regimes and even quirks of physique mean they can do things faster, stronger and sleeker than us mere mortals.

But the last weekend of the Games brought a human touch. I am of course, talking about Australian breaker, Raygun.

She may have scored zero points and been knocked out of the competition early – but her moves have been watched by millions worldwide.

Raygun’s effort suddenly made the Olympics seem a whole lot more democratic – and even fun.

We have a soft spot for underdogs and amateurs, those that give it their best shot.

Raygun joins the pantheon of these other accidental Olympic greats.

I will never forget Eric the Eel, who had never swum in an Olympic-sized pool before he competed in Sydney 2000; or Steven Bradbury in the 2002 Winter Games who won Gold after his fellow competitors fell over.

So now the Olympic spirit is ‘every child gets a prize’, is it?

In the continuing controversy over Raygun, one thing seems to have been overlooked. Many highly talented athletes in mainstream sports work their guts out for many years with the dream of winning an Olympic medal. Their consolation prize is to gain the coveted mantle of ‘Olympian’, something which stays with them forever. Unfortunately, most of them do not even achieve this. How galling must it then be for those athletes to see a second-rate performer in a second-rate once-only Olympic sport gain this attention?

If, as Plibersek claims, Raygun ‘gave her all’, she was clearly not up to the standard required to represent this nation at the elite level, regardless of whether or not she was the best we had. The Australian Olympic selectors should have had the courage to say, ‘Sorry, love, you’re just not good enough’.

And by the way, Steven Bradbury won his Gold because he made it to the final in a very gruelling, highly competitive sport. Please don’t lump him in with Raygun.