I’d be surprised if she wasn’t aware of her skills compared to her international peers. She’s been in the scene for years, participating and even judging not just in Australia but in other countries. She couldn’t have expected to win, but to become a total mockery is something else.
This Vox article helped me to understand her situation just a little better:
I could definitely see privilege coming into play, especially since I don’t know what economic hoops and whatnot came into play with the trials. But an even bigger problem may be codifying breaking into a scoreable event. She’s gotten to where she is based on that. It used to be judges just pointing at who they thought was better, but trying to make it objective and quantifiable does, well, this to the art.
