Dr Dre takes critical shot at Olympics 2024
One of the highlights of the entire Olympics was Snoop Dogg, who made it his mission to complete as many unexpected side quests as possible. Longtime friend and regular collaborator Dr Dre wasn’t anywhere near as heavily involved, but he saw enough to pass judgement.
Whereas Snoop was carrying the torch, taking swimming lessons from Michael Phelps, kitting himself out in full dressage regalia, and generally being one of the games’ highest-profile cheerleaders, Dre was limited to the closing ceremony that doubled as a handover to the 2028 edition being held in Los Angeles.
That doesn’t mean he wasn’t paying attention to the Olympics, though, with one of the breakout stars drawing his ire. Paris 2024 spawned its fair share of viral sensations, and one of the most notable was the 36-year-old Australian professor and breakdancer Rachael Gunn, better known by her nickname, Raygun.
In technical terms, her performance was terrible, and she comprehensively lost every battle she was in; while he didn’t go quite so far as to name names, there are no doubts over who Dre was talking about when he was criticising the event when he believes breakdancing has many performers who are much more talented that didn’t get a look-in.
“I did not like that,” he said to Entertainment Tonight of the breakdancing competition. “It’s got so many great breakdancers that I don’t know why they had this particular person doing that.” Sorry, Raygun, but Dre is not a fan. Ending up with zero points and becoming a meme, Dre enjoyed it for what it was, even if he didn’t see it as Olympics-worthy.
“It was funny, I got some laughs out of it,” he admitted. “But what the fuck? There are incredible breakdancers out right now; I don’t know how that happened.” It’s easy for anyone to criticise the athletes from the comfort of their own couch, but Dre teased that he could end up competing at Los Angeles 2028.
For that to happen, he’d have to get back into archery, a pastime he’s been interested in since his school days. “I stopped for a while, and my son bought me a setup,” he explained. “So I have it set up in my backyard. Wouldn’t that be interesting to go, especially with it being here in LA, and win the gold medal.”
Paris 2024 has conditioned audiences to expect the unexpected from the Olympics, and Dr Dre winning an archery medal four years later would be a fitting way to carry on in that vein.