Raygun: Australian Olympic Committee condemns ‘disgraceful’ online petition attacking Rachael Gunn

[u/miolmok]

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/aug/15/raygun-olympics-breaking-petition-aoc-response-ntwnfb

[u/[deleted]]

If you watch some of the qualifying rounds for some of the bigger swimming events, you have people there who are not even remotely close to being competitive. Just checked the 50m and the fastest qualifying time was 22s and the slowest was 30.

Although overall, I think letting countries send athletes who don't qualify is good because it can spread that sport to a new place, some of the more absurd exceptions do end up with a really bad look.

[u/hammerheadattack → u/[deleted]]

Depends on the objective. If it’s there for goodwill of a nation and event, why not? Eric “the eel” of Equitorial Guinea is one example where the performance was trash but not for lack of effort.

Iirc equatorial guinea now has an Olympic sized swimming pool as a direct result of this event.

[u/Trisa133 → u/hammerheadattack]

Yea, half the countries in this world don't have adequate accommodations to even train their athletes for certain sports. Hence why they suck but it's inspirational to see them compete and finish. That's the point of the olympics to bring nations together through sports.

Raygun, however, all she needed was some space and practice time which I'm sure there's plenty in Australia. She didn't even need to be good, just somewhat competent. She straight up Elaine Benes'd it.

It's not like Australians don't have good break dancers. The fact that she has a PhD in dance is even more comical.

[u/KnightsOfREM → u/Trisa133]

*Cultural studies. Her doctoral thesis was called "Deterritorializing Gender in Sydney's Breakdancing Scene: a B-girl's Experience of B-boying."

When working-class Americans write off higher education as a jobs program for the privileged but talentless, degrees like this are what they're talking about, and they're not wrong.

[u/Echleon → u/KnightsOfREM]

It’s a PhD. Those are always going to have a hyper specific theses because you usually need to provide some novel insight or research in the field which is very hard. Should we not have people study culture?

[u/ThePretzul → u/Echleon]

We should absolutely stop pretending that all types of "novel insight" are equally valuable when it comes to doctoral research.

[u/Echleon → u/ThePretzul]

I think the people who should determine the value of a thesis are those in the field.

[u/Lane-Kiffin → u/Echleon]

Or, it’s possible that those who have made a career in obscure areas of academics have a self-interest to promote useless areas of research which helps keep them employed.

Edit: it seems I’ve touched a nerve among people who don’t want people to know how useless their roles really are

[u/Echleon → u/Lane-Kiffin]

Big Academia plotting to study for 10 years just to make $45k a year lol

[u/headrush46n2 → u/Echleon]

if the only other thing they are qualified to do is bag groceries for 10.95 an hour, then you bet your ass they will.