Open this photo in gallery:Australian break dancer Raygun competes during the B-Girls Round Robin on day 14 of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Place de la Concorde, on Aug. 9.Ezra Shaw/Getty ImagesIt is in the nature of the Olympics that people you had never heard of become enormously famous for a day, maybe two, and then recede forever.Paris 2024 threw up Parmesan Girl (gymnast who advertises cheese), Pommel Horse Guy (another gymnast, this time with glasses) and Pole Vault Guy (pole vaulter whose nethers snagged the bar).Thanks to TikTok and our vogue for trite ideas, these people were more obsessed over than the competitors who won things. It was the first memeable Olympics.But one 21-second reel broke free of the internet and lived on – Raygun.Rachael (Raygun) Gunn was the Australian hip-hop academic who turned praxis into a national embarrassment. She qualified for the Olympics as a break dancer, despite a seeming inability to break dance, or dance, or nod along in time to a beat.Where other competitors spun themselves around the stage like out-of-control helicopters, Raygun just kind of flopped around on the ground.Her notable moves – the kangaroo (hands in front of face, hop), the recline (lie on back on cocked elbow, stare meaningfully), the reverse sit-up (lie on back, lift legs). Raygun looked like what you or I would look like at the Olympics, but not sufficiently sheepish.Swimmers who swim fast are chock-a-block at the Games. Same dolphin bodies. Same reflective goggles and skull caps. You can’t tell any of them apart.In her gorpcore Aussie leisure suit, Raygun was so remarkable that she became a popular Halloween costume. At a guess, the most recognizable current and former Olympians in the world right now – Usain Bolt and, at No. 2, the breaker who lost three battles by a combined score of 54-0.Opinion: From Parmesan Girl to Pommel Horse Guy, the Paris Olympics are bringing the memesRaygun didn’t win, but she achieved what every teenager wishes for themselves these days – she became widely known. Her effort-to-reach ratio must be an all-timer.One of the things that defined 2024 is the spirit of what I would call vigorous amateurism.What’s an expert these days? Someone who’s about to be proved wrong.The vigorous amateur doesn’t know anything. She hasn’t learned or gone broke being educated. She just does.She’s the woman who decides to film herself stripping her kitchen to the studs despite having never set foot in a Home Depot, or the guy who doesn’t believe in the polio vaccine and thinks he can be U.S. Secretary of Health. They’re both right, and they can both be stars on the internet.This is what the democratization of media looks like. Some guy who has a thought about Middle Eastern politics after reading a couple of Wikipedia entries getting as much online oxygen as Edward Said. More, if he’s funny about it.Why bother practising for 20 years when you can con your way onto the stage? It’s not about earning esteem. It’s about getting people to acknowledge your existence. That is the prize.To do it the other way is to buy into the system and put yourself at the mercy of elites. The amateur knows that’s the real con. He is here to break into the shop, not pay entry.Raygun emblemized this spirit of ecstatic know-nothingness. She says she can break dance, so she can. Evidently, the entire breakdancing world backed up in front of her boundless self-confidence. So much so that everyone was left looking ridiculous. Except Raygun.Open this photo in gallery:Australia's Rachael Gunn, known as B-Girl Raygun, competes at the breaking competition at La Concorde Urban Park at the 2024 Summer Olympics, on Aug. 9.Frank Franklin II/The Associated PressThere have been other famously terrible amateurs at the Olympics – Eddie the Eagle, the Jamaican bobsledders. But where in the past criticism was dulled by humour and self-deprecation, there is no longer room for that. The modern amateur isn’t just bad, they’re also right. Anyone who says different is bullying them.“I didn’t realize that would open the door to so much hate, which has frankly been pretty devastating,” Gunn said.This rhetorical tack caught traction because all the wannabe famous amateurs out there know what it’s like to be doubted. People have doubted them their whole lives. Like that time everyone said you couldn’t ride a skateboard off the roof of the garage and into the pool and you landed on the back patio instead and broke both ankles. That was a huge hit. So who’s the real idiot?Amateurs and experts have this much in common – they’re never wrong. At best, they’re misunderstood. At worst, they’re frankly pretty devastated that there’s been so much hate coming through that door that they opened and then started shouting.U.S. COVID czar Anthony Fauci not quite admitting they made up the whole ‘six-foot rule’ and, subsequent to the Olympics, Raygun being chosen the No. 1-ranked breaker in the world – you tell me the difference.“If the rule that you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?” – it’s a question applicable to athletes, epidemiologists and everyone else, though no one bothers asking it.Take it further. If both sides of every major debate begin from the principle that the system is broken, then what use are the experts? They made the rules. How about letting someone else drive for a while?Pre-2008 financial crisis, that was an outrageous suggestion. In 2024, it became a blinding insight. It will produce chaos, which may be preferable to the lethargy that had consumed most western cultures. It’s only now we realize that we’ve been spinning our wheels since the Berlin Wall came down, losing faith in our institutions, producing no new ideas and laying all our hope on the altar of compound interest.As a result, these are our new heroes – the overnight success, the attractive grifter, the specialist manqué, the 16-step facial routine, the Olympian but not really.They’re on the internet. They’re showing you how it’s done (wrong, usually). They’re telling you anyone can do it. And when they can’t, they’re blaming you for pointing that out.

Raygun is the athlete of year that we all deserve

Open this photo in gallery: Her notable moves – the kangaroo (hands in front of face, hop), the recline (lie on back on cocked elbow, stare meaningfully), the reverse sit-up (lie on back, lift legs). Raygun looked like what you or I would look like at the Olympics, but not sufficiently sheepish. Pre-2008 financial crisis, […]

Her notable moves – the kangaroo (hands in front of face, hop), the recline (lie on back on cocked elbow, stare meaningfully), the reverse sit-up (lie on back, lift legs). Raygun looked like what you or I would look like at the Olympics, but not sufficiently sheepish.

Pre-2008 financial crisis, that was an outrageous suggestion. In 2024, it became a blinding insight. It will produce chaos, which may be preferable to the lethargy that had consumed most western cultures. It’s only now we realize that we’ve been spinning our wheels since the Berlin Wall came down, losing faith in our institutions, producing no new ideas and laying all our hope on the altar of compound interest.Australia’s Rachael Gunn, known as B-Girl Raygun, competes at the breaking competition at La Concorde Urban Park at the 2024 Summer Olympics, on Aug. 9.Frank Franklin II/The Associated Press“If the rule that you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?” – it’s a question applicable to athletes, epidemiologists and everyone else, though no one bothers asking it.The vigorous amateur doesn’t know anything. She hasn’t learned or gone broke being educated. She just does.There have been other famously terrible amateurs at the Olympics – Eddie the Eagle, the Jamaican bobsledders. But where in the past criticism was dulled by humour and self-deprecation, there is no longer room for that. The modern amateur isn’t just bad, they’re also right. Anyone who says different is bullying them.Why bother practising for 20 years when you can con your way onto the stage? It’s not about earning esteem. It’s about getting people to acknowledge your existence. That is the prize.Take it further. If both sides of every major debate begin from the principle that the system is broken, then what use are the experts? They made the rules. How about letting someone else drive for a while?Paris 2024 threw up Parmesan Girl (gymnast who advertises cheese), Pommel Horse Guy (another gymnast, this time with glasses) and Pole Vault Guy (pole vaulter whose nethers snagged the bar).This rhetorical tack caught traction because all the wannabe famous amateurs out there know what it’s like to be doubted. People have doubted them their whole lives. Like that time everyone said you couldn’t ride a skateboard off the roof of the garage and into the pool and you landed on the back patio instead and broke both ankles. That was a huge hit. So who’s the real idiot?Where other competitors spun themselves around the stage like out-of-control helicopters, Raygun just kind of flopped around on the ground.She’s the woman who decides to film herself stripping her kitchen to the studs despite having never set foot in a Home Depot, or the guy who doesn’t believe in the polio vaccine and thinks he can be U.S. Secretary of Health. They’re both right, and they can both be stars on the internet.It is in the nature of the Olympics that people you had never heard of become enormously famous for a day, maybe two, and then recede forever.Australian break dancer Raygun competes during the B-Girls Round Robin on day 14 of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Place de la Concorde, on Aug. 9.Ezra Shaw/Getty Images“I didn’t realize that would open the door to so much hate, which has frankly been pretty devastating,” Gunn said.But one 21-second reel broke free of the internet and lived on – Raygun.One of the things that defined 2024 is the spirit of what I would call vigorous amateurism.What’s an expert these days? Someone who’s about to be proved wrong.This is what the democratization of media looks like. Some guy who has a thought about Middle Eastern politics after reading a couple of Wikipedia entries getting as much online oxygen as Edward Said. More, if he’s funny about it.In her gorpcore Aussie leisure suit, Raygun was so remarkable that she became a popular Halloween costume. At a guess, the most recognizable current and former Olympians in the world right now – Usain Bolt and, at No. 2, the breaker who lost three battles by a combined score of 54-0.

To do it the other way is to buy into the system and put yourself at the mercy of elites. The amateur knows that’s the real con. He is here to break into the shop, not pay entry.

Thanks to TikTok and our vogue for trite ideas, these people were more obsessed over than the competitors who won things. It was the first memeable Olympics.Raygun emblemized this spirit of ecstatic know-nothingness. She says she can break dance, so she can. Evidently, the entire breakdancing world backed up in front of her boundless self-confidence. So much so that everyone was left looking ridiculous. Except Raygun.Amateurs and experts have this much in common – they’re never wrong. At best, they’re misunderstood. At worst, they’re frankly pretty devastated that there’s been so much hate coming through that door that they opened and then started shouting.As a result, these are our new heroes – the overnight success, the attractive grifter, the specialist manqué, the 16-step facial routine, the Olympian but not really.Raygun didn’t win, but she achieved what every teenager wishes for themselves these days – she became widely known. Her effort-to-reach ratio must be an all-timer.U.S. COVID czar Anthony Fauci not quite admitting they made up the whole ‘six-foot rule’ and, subsequent to the Olympics, Raygun being chosen the No. 1-ranked breaker in the world – you tell me the difference.Opinion: From Parmesan Girl to Pommel Horse Guy, the Paris Olympics are bringing the memesRachael (Raygun) Gunn was the Australian hip-hop academic who turned praxis into a national embarrassment. She qualified for the Olympics as a break dancer, despite a seeming inability to break dance, or dance, or nod along in time to a beat.They’re on the internet. They’re showing you how it’s done (wrong, usually). They’re telling you anyone can do it. And when they can’t, they’re blaming you for pointing that out.Swimmers who swim fast are chock-a-block at the Games. Same dolphin bodies. Same reflective goggles and skull caps. You can’t tell any of them apart.