Never before has breakdancing featured at an Olympic Games.
Proponents of the sport hoped its inclusion this year in Paris would inspire a new generation of breakdancing girls and boys, known as B-girls and B-boys in hip-hop culture, to take up what is commonly known as breaking.
It was the chance of a lifetime for Dr Rachael Gunn, a 36-year-old academic, who has spent the past decade studying breaking at Macquarie University in Sydney.
But critics are now saying the sport could be set back years in the wake of her performance, which has sparked widespread mockery.
Alongside 16 other competitors, Dr Gunn, who uses the name Raygun while performing, entered the arena in her Team Australia outfit and produced the stand-out performance of the event.
Unfortunately, her innovative moves did not result in an Olympic medal.
Australia’s top-ranked breakdancer failed to score a point, losing each of her three round-robin bouts by two rounds to zero.
In the hours after breaking’s introduction to the world’s biggest sporting competition, clips of Raygun’s performance began to go viral on social media.
They showed her jumping around on stage imitating a kangaroo, rolling around on the floor and spinning on her head.
At one point she appeared to squirm around on the floor while attempting to touch her toes.
The comments, the memes, the comparisons, and the ensuing backlash were almost universally critical.
One person compared her performance to “What my nephew does after telling us all to watch this”.
Another said sections of her routine looked like “someone trying to take the duvet off when they are too hot at night”.
One of the more critical commentators wrote that Dr Gunn had “set breaking back 40 years”.
Breaking was first created by African-American and Latino teenagers in the Bronx borough of New York City in the 1970s when hip-hop culture was also first emerging and Dr Gunn has spent years studying its history.
Following the backlash, papers and articles Dr Gunn had written prior to the Games quickly resurfaced, discussing how the dance culture could be opened up to those from other backgrounds.
In a third person co-authored article published on the Hip Hop and Dance Almanac blog, Dr Gunn wrote that she wanted to make a point of distinguishing “breaking” from traditional hip-hop dancing.
She did this, she argued, to “avoid any possibility that people might consider she – a white Australian academic – speaks for or represents hip-hop culture in any way”.
She said that breaking was only “a part of her life” and she hoped that by acknowledging that, she was not seen as “the gatekeeper of hip hop”.
Dr Gunn also argued that the “meritocracy” inherent in the male-dominated culture of breaking was exclusionary and people of all abilities should be welcomed.
She has previously spoken of her research into the “cultural politics of breaking” that explores gender, race, and the politics around identity and representation and how “all-style” dance battles can increase “inclusivity” on the dance floor.
Following Friday’s performance, however, critics have said that if you ask someone what they know about breaking now, Raygun, despite her desire not to be seen as the “gatekeeper” of the sport, may be the first name that comes to mind.
Jay Caspian Kang, a podcaster and New York Times writer, commented: “She says she isn’t living hip hop but [is] doing it part time because she’s Australian and white etc. and that her dance reflects all that… And she is doing her own bad moves as a way to show that bad dancing is also valid because the meritocracy is exclusionary.”
Kang said that ultimately it seemed that what Dr Gunn had ended up doing was producing a piece of “performance art” that was “wildly disrespectful to the tradition” and put her at the centre of the sport.
Dr Gunn has published a number of academic papers on the culture of breaking and in an interview with Macquarie University before she travelled to Paris, she said: “My current practice-based research is an extension of my previous work… but it is taking it to the high-stakes environment of the Olympics.”
In another she acknowledged she had always been as much a fan as a participant in the sport.
In a first person piece in the Economist, she said: “Breaking is highly accessible, making it particularly attractive to those often excluded from traditional sports and the institutions that support them, either because they don’t fit or can’t afford club fees, uniforms or equipment.”
Speaking after the competition, Dr Gunn said she knew she couldn’t compete with the other athletes’ tricks and spins and strength moves, so she had tried to be more creative.
In a post on Instagram following the backlash, she wrote: “Don’t be afraid to be different. Go out there and represent yourself, you never know where that’s going to take you”.
Anna Meares, Australia’s Chef de Mission at the Games, defended the athlete and said: “Raygun is an absolutely loved member of this Olympic team. She has represented the Olympic team, the Olympic spirit with great enthusiasm.”
The World Dance Sport Federation has not responded to a request for comment.
Breaking will not feature at Los Angeles 2028.
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