Meme Culture vs Breaking's Olympic Debut

One Meme vs 40 Years of History in an Epic Olympics Showdown

Aug 20, 2024

Three breakers are seen posing with their medals. — The winners of the men’s breaking competition, Danny Dan (FRA), Phil Wizard (CAN) and Victor (USA)

The Paris Olympics closed last week, and were considered an unparalleled success. As the first Olympics that felt truly post-pandemic, it was a powerful reminder of the role sports can play in uniting us.

It had its big winners, following the classic Olympics narrative of adversity overcome, unmatched feats of physicality, and records complete

Sifan Hassan (NL), who medaled of the 5k, 10k and a marathon, Armando Duplantis (SE), who broke his own world record to win pole vaulting gold, and Simone Biles (US), the most decorated gymnast in history

It also had its only-in-2024 heroes, style icons and epic wins, instantly memeable moments that reflected our new media that loves daily heroes and mythologizes the perfect image

Kim Yeji (KOR), who brought main character energy to sharpshooting, Stephen Nedoroscik (USA) who won the internet and the bronze in gymnastics pommel horse, and Snoop Dogg

The meme machine that made stars out of the feats and fashion of the Olympics hit paydirt with Raygun. An ill-fated and underprepared breaker from Australia, Raygun found herself far out of her element and in the circus of social media.

It was the first year that breaking was in the Olympics. A truly remarkable story that could parallel the tale of the most legendary Olympian: born in the Bronx in the 1980s, fighting through dismissal as an art form, into the popular imagination, and then working hard to legitimize itself through, breakdancing’s debut on the OIympics stage felt like a triumph. I was excited for this moment to introduce global audiences to the virtuosity of this art form and the many layers of history and culture of its hip hop roots.

The stage itself was an ode to breakdancing’s roots, with a massive boombox design behind the many judges. The DJs brought it with a list of 400 songs to surprise the breakers with. And the lore of breaking got more airtime than ever.

But all of that barely made a dent compared to the performance of Raygun, whose poor performance led to over a week of memes and burns, which started funny and just became mean. Now, if you search Olympic breakdancing, the first things that come up are news and commentary about one of the worst Olympic performances, rather than the epic win of having breaking on the world’s biggest stage.

Breaking was on thin ice; it’s still unclear if it will get a repeat in Los Angeles, or if we only got one magical year of it.

So I’m here to spotlight and celebrate the people who understood the assignment, and showcase the images I wish