Can’t break her down.
Australian breakdancer Raygun is receiving praise from a top Olympic judge amid ongoing backlash from her now-viral performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“Breaking is all about originality and bringing something new to the table and representing your country or region,” chief breaking judge Martin Gilian, also known as MGbility, said of the 36-year-old B-girl, who at one point pulled out a kangaroo hop, per CNN.
“This is exactly what Raygun was doing, she got inspired by her surroundings, which in this case, for example, was a kangaroo.”
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Despite Raygun (real name: Rachael Gunn) not receiving a single point for her performance, Gilian reassured reporters that the scores are based on a “competitive judging system” and should not mean that “she did really bad.”
“She created some original moves, which could be maybe funny or entertaining for others, but for us, she basically represented breaking and hip hop,” Gilian continued.
“She was trying to be original and bring something new to the table. From our perspective, that was nothing really shocking.”
Anna Meares, the chef de mission of Australia, also echoed her support for Raygun, telling reporters that the Aussie dancer worked her way up the Olympics and conquered the “male-dominated sport.”
“If you don’t know [Raygun’s] story, in 2008, she was locked in a room crying [about] being involved in a male-dominated sport as the only woman, and it took great courage for her to continue on and fight for her opportunity to participate in a sport that she loved,” Meares told reporters over the weekend, according to the outlet.
Meares claimed that Raygun is also “the best breakdancer, female, that [they] have in Australia,” which qualified her for the Olympics.
“She has represented the Olympic team, the Olympic spirit, with great enthusiasm and I absolutely love her courage,” Meares continued. “I love her character, and I feel very disappointed for her that she has come under the attack that she has.”
Meanwhile, Sergey Nifontov, who serves as the general secretary of the World DanceSport Federation, admitted that he’s “worried” about the backlash that Raygun’s routine has received online.
“That should not happen in our world,” he told CNN. “Something is going in the wrong direction.”
The Australian dancer became an overnight sensation after her dance routine at the inaugural Olympics breaking competition last Friday saw her rolling on the ground as she reached for her toes, bouncing like a kangaroo and twirling her arms in the air sporadically.
Raygun and other low-scoring competitors ultimately were beat out by Japan’s Ami Yuasa, Lithuania’s Dominika Banevič and China’s Liu Qingyi, who took home gold, silver and bronze, respectively.
“I was never going to beat these girls on what they do best, the dynamic and the power moves, so I wanted to move differently, be artistic and creative because how many chances do you get in a lifetime to do that on an international stage?” Raygun told reporters after her performance, per BBC.
While many bashed the performance online, some supporters of the breaker – who also works as a professor at Sydney’s Macquarie University – admitted that they were envious of Gunn’s “creative” routine and the “confidence” she displayed during the competition.
“I could never come up with something like this,” one person wrote on X.
“Obsessed with Raygun because I identify with the level of dorkiness she projects,” another chimed in.
However, many critics still struggled to believe Raygun’s performance was legit, with one writing, “If this Raygun lady turns out to be a comedian who somehow blagged her way through qualifiers and all the way to the Olympics, and was bad on purpose, it will be one of the greatest bits ever achieved.”
“It’s surprising that Raygun from Australia is the top breaker. The kangaroo move — how did she make it this far?!” a second added.
The Sydney-based lecturer cryptically addressed the online backlash with a personal quote shared on Instagram over the weekend.
“Don’t be afraid to be different, go out there and represent yourself, you never know where that’s gonna take you,” she wrote.
Raygun, who started competitively dancing in her 20s, earned her way to the Olympics after winning the Oceania Breaking Championships in 2023 and participating at the world championships in 2021 and 2022.
Breaking made its debut at the 2024 Olympics but is not expected to return in 2028 when the summer games are hosted in Los Angeles.
