Former Warriors NRLW player Ellia Green makes rugby return after transitioning
Warning: This article contains discussion of self-harm.
Australian sevens Olympic gold medallist Ellia Green has spoken out about the dark period in his life, contemplating suicide before coming out as a trans man.
Green was part of Australia's historic women's sevens team that won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics
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RNZ News
7 hours ago
- RNZ News
Raygun's Olympic breaking broke the internet and continues to polarise
By Greg Hassall and Rebecca Armstrong Rachael Gunn known as "Raygun" of Australia during the B-Girls Round Robin Breaking Battle between Australia and the United States at La Concorde 1 as part of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in Paris, France, 9 August, 2024. Photo: AAP via Photosport Analysis - Australia achieved its greatest-ever medal haul at the Paris Olympics, but 12 months on, the enduring memory is of a white, middle-class, 30-something B-girl in a cheap green-and-gold tracksuit crashing out of the breaking competition in the first round. Going by the name Raygun, Rachael Gunn seared herself into the collective imagination with a series of moves that failed to impress the judges but launched a torrent of memes, vitriol, and hot takes. Was she punking the Olympics? Was the routine, with its imitations of kangaroos and sprinklers, ironic - a playfully knowing appropriation of Australian iconography? Or was she simply having an off day? Whatever the case, Gunn's routine, the reaction to it, and how she subsequently carried herself, combined to create a confounding cultural moment. "To be honest, I get mental whiplash thinking about this topic," marketing strategist Christina Aventi tells Australian Story. "It's just a confusing mess. And it's hard to make sense of." Raygun competes against France's Sya Dembele, known as Syssy, at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Photo: AFP / Odd Andersen Raygun competes against France's Sya Dembele, known as Syssy, at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. There are so many strands to the Raygun phenomenon that it's hard to neatly untangle any of them. Even the initial responses to her routine were wildly varied and often contradictory. Back in Australia, some simply saw it as funny - something in the spirit of Roy and HG's The Dream - and didn't care if it was serious or a piss-take. But for others, the Olympics represent a rare opportunity for Australians to punch above their weight on the global stage, and thanks to Raygun, people all around the world were laughing at us. "It's clear that it really touched a nerve around our cultural, athletic identity," Aventi says. "It was our best performing Olympics yet, that was somewhat overshadowed by this routine that looked more eisteddfod than Olympics." There is, of course, a rich tradition of heroic Olympic failures - think Eddie the Eagle, Eric the Eel, the Jamaican bobsled team, even Australia's own Steven Bradbury, who speed-skated to victory, only because all his competitors crashed out. But as Aventi points out, Gunn does not fit neatly into that pantheon of losers. "They have backstories that people respond to really positively because they're hard-luck stories; they're against-all-the-odds stories," she says. "And in this case, we've got a uni professor who doesn't look like a breaker, who's wearing a green-and-gold tracksuit that looks like it's straight out of Lowes. "It just doesn't quite stack up to some of those other stories we love." Raygun competes in the women's breaking dance at the Paris Olympics. Photo: Odd Andersen/AFP Criticism of Raygun's routine did not just come from Australians with a bruised sense of national pride. For some in the international breaking community, her performance was insultingly amateurish. "The anger that came from Raygun's performance at the Olympics comes from a lot of different places," explains New York artist and breaking pioneer Michael Holman. "A slice of that pie came from people who knew what breaking was, saying, 'Wow, you know, that's not great breaking.'" But a bigger issue for Holman - and one that Gunn, an academic interested in the cultural politics of breaking, seemed oddly unprepared for - was that of cultural appropriation and insensitivity. "Part of the magic of hip hop culture is the fact that it was created by marginalised teenagers, poor and working-class black and Puerto Rican kids who came from nothing," Holman says. "So her being white and Australian and jumping around like a kangaroo, that's going to be a loaded gun. "Whether she intended it or not, the end result was mockery." She was ridiculed by US tonight show hosts, eviscerated by countless bloggers, and falsely accused of everything from gaming the system to being responsible for breaking not being part of the 2028 Olympics. There were concerns for her mental health in the days after the event. Australia's Olympic chef de mission Anna Meares defended Gunn publicly, calling out "trolls and keyboard warriors" for their misogyny and abuse. Even Prime Minister Anthony Albanese came to her defence, although "Raygun had a crack" was perhaps not the most ringing of prime ministerial endorsements. Initially, Gunn seemed to handle the situation well. Although the criticism clearly stung, she appeared willing to make fun of herself, breaking into an impromptu routine and throwing kangaroo poses as the Australian Olympic team prepared for the Closing Ceremony. "I think there was a sense that it was a cultural moment," says journalist Jordan Baker, who covered the Paris Olympics for The Sydney Morning Herald . "She gave an unusual performance. It was fun. We'll rally behind her." It was a musical, of all things, that changed all that. Comedian Stephanie Broadbridge didn't even watch Gunn's Olympic routine but became fascinated by how she handled herself in the aftermath. Broadbridge had been through her own social media pile-on in 2023 when a video of her trying not to laugh as a male comedian told a joke was viewed more than 150 million times, provoking a torrent of cruel and misogynistic comments. She was traumatised by the experience and found something admirable in Gunn's refusal to apologise for herself. "Raygun never backed down, and I was like, I love this. This is such an interesting thing from a woman," Broadbridge says. "Women don't usually behave like that publicly, and I was so excited that there was one around my age doing that." Broadbridge looked at the heightened emotion around the Raygun phenomenon and decided it had all the elements of a musical. "She's the hero that Australia needed; the female Shane Warne. The one that's flawed but we love her anyway," she says. "I wanted to tell that story. I wanted an Australian larrikin story that was a woman." And that's when things got weird. Days before the opening performance of Raygun: The Musical, Broadbridge received a cease-and-desist letter from Gunn's lawyers demanding that the show not go ahead because it violated her intellectual property and could damage her brand. "The dance moves were copyrighted, the silhouette was trademarked. Basically, every element," Broadbridge explains. Baker says this was "the point where a lot of people lost sympathy for Rachael". "People who had backed her the whole way felt like this was a betrayal of their support for her," she says. "When the heavy-handed legal threats started coming, it seemed mean-spirited; it seemed like she was no longer even remotely trying to lean into the joke." When Gunn addressed the outcry in an Instagram video, it only made things worse. It seems that in Australia, a far greater sin than athletic underachievement is taking yourself too seriously. "When she's trying to halt a musical, when she's trying to trademark something like a kangaroo hop, that's about her," Aventi says. "I think if she stood for something a little bit bigger - maybe resilience, strength, owning your own truth - that would have given a different centre of gravity to the story. "I know she's been through a lot, but a little bit more vulnerability might have helped people warm to her a bit more. "I feel really uncomfortable saying that. It's like Lindy Chamberlain all over again - why should we expect someone to be vulnerable? But vulnerability is something that connects and opens people up." Now the dust has settled on Raygun's cultural moment, what have we learned? That Australians don't like people who take themselves too seriously? That we like our athletes to win? That we're suspicious of academics? That the internet expects women to behave in a certain way and reacts violently when they don't? Or was it just, as Shakespeare once wrote, "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing?" In the end, Broadbridge got to keep her musical, albeit with the lead's name changed to Spraygun and the title changed to Breaking: The Musical . And Gunn has her trademarked moves and a great story to tell someday. And after their crash course in public relations, she and her team might get the marketing right when she does. Rachael Gunn declined to be interviewed for this story. - ABC
Scoop
7 hours ago
- Scoop
New Analysis Details Government Annual Gift Of $119m To Multinational Gambling Company
Greyhound Racing New Zealand has released new analysis detailing the extent to which the Government is financially supporting a multinational gambling giant. It comes as the Government is expected this week to pass the Racing Industry Amendment Bill into law, creating a digital monopoly on gambling for Entain. The analysis, prepared by an independent consultant, details the financial help required for Entain to meet its funding guarantee of $150m per year to the racing industry. The funding guarantee, combined with a guarantee to retain approximately 450 TAB staff until June 2025, were set under the terms of the agreement when the TAB's betting business was outsourced to Entain in 2023. The analysis estimates in dollar terms the value of the Government's support to bail out Entain so it can limit its losses in meeting the terms of its deal until 2029. The passage of legislation to block New Zealanders from gambling offshore will boost Entain annual revenues by at least $75m per year. The retention of gambling on Australian greyhounds after the ban comes into effect, will preserve Entain gross betting revenues of approximately $44m per year. Without these actions by the Government, Entain would be faced with an estimated revenue deficit of $26m per year. Greyhound Racing New Zealand CEO Edward Renell said: 'The Government has chosen to bail out a multinational gambling company at the expense of ordinary Kiwis. 'It will shamelessly pass laws and create digital monopolies so Entain can meet its funding guarantees and obligations to private shareholders. 'Entain won't need to compete to win new revenue as it was brought in to do. It will be gifted it by banning Kiwis from using non-Entain betting providers and retaining gambling on Australian greyhound racing. 'The decision to keep taking money from Australian greyhound races, but strip thousands of regional Kiwis of their livelihoods and passion, is depressingly cynical and hypocritical. 'Gross income of $44 million dollars each year will now be sliced up between the Government, Entain and the equine codes and not go to the thousands of trainers, owners, and breeders involved in greyhound racing. 'It's a reverse Robin Hood. The Government is taking money from the provinces to save face on a bad deal and keep the money flowing into Entain, thoroughbred and harness racing.' Notes: Timeline of Entain – TAB deal: March 2023: TAB and Entain agreed to enter a strategic partnership agreement where TAB has delegated its betting and wagering functions to Entain. May 2023: The partnership was approved by then Racing Minister Labour's Kieran McAnulty, outsourcing TAB's monopoly betting operation to Entain for 25 years, a UK-listed multinational. 50% revenue share between Entain and the TAB. May 2023: TAB sought a variation to its authorisation of its arrangements with Tabcorp to reflect strategic partnership with Entain. June 2023: The partnership officially started on June 1, 2023. Entain Guarantees under the terms of sale: Entain provided TAB $150 million upfront a with a guaranteed $150 million for the first five years. $10 million sponsorship for racing carnivals. On passage of the Racing Amendment bill into law: $100 million payment from Entain, $80 million to be shared between thoroughbred and harness racing Entain committed to no forced redundancies for first 24 months of the agreement, due to expire this month (June 2025). Book value of Entain's TAB licence assets, if the Racing Amendment legislation goes through: According to Entain's March 2025 annual report, the estimated value of the New Zealand TAB licence assets was $2.7 billion NZD, including the potential introduction of the legislation. About GRNZ Greyhound Racing New Zealand is the governing body for greyhound racing in New Zealand and provides governance, support and assistance to the affiliated clubs in the sport of greyhound racing. The decision to end greyhound racing has significant economic and social consequences. The sport provides 1,054 full-time equivalent jobs and contributed $159.2 million to the economy in FY23. The Government announced on 10 December 2024, an intention to legislate to ban greyhound racing in New Zealand from 31 July 2026. Visit for more information.
Otago Daily Times
15 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Lake Wakatipu's first ‘sharks' ready to ride
The Shotover wastewater treatment plant has now discharged the equivalent of about 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools of effluent into the Shotover River and the consideration of its effects has yet...
