Picture this: You're an elite athlete, training tirelessly for years, mastering leaps so high you could jump over a door (a casual 2.36 metres), vault a ute (7.1 metres), and sprint faster than a Chihuahua chasing a frisbee (9.79 seconds). You're ready to compete at the highest level—the Olympics. But suddenly, in hops Rachael Gunn, an Aussie breakdancer with a flair for the dramatic and a green tracksuit that’s been more viral than the flu.
Meet Rachael Gunn, also known as "Raygun," an Australian academic by day and a kangaroo-inspired breakdancer by... well, also day. After years of juggling lecturing at Macquarie University with her passion for breakdancing, she finally makes it to the 2024 Summer Olympics, only to unleash a routine so unorthodox it made the sprinkler look like high art. Gunn's performance, complete with some questionable kangaroo-hopping, received a grand total of 0 out of 54 points from the judges—yep, you read that right, zero. Naturally, the internet exploded with memes, mockery, and a level of outrage typically reserved for reality TV finales.
Now, let's hop back to Gunn’s journey. She started breaking in 2010, took a brief hiatus to snag a PhD, and then returned to the dance scene with a vengeance, or at least, with a lot of enthusiasm. By 2023, she was topping the Australian breaking charts and secured her spot for the 2024 Olympics after winning the Oceania Breaking Championship. But here’s where things get wild—Gunn decided to ditch the usual acrobatic flair for something more...hoppy. Decked out in a green tracksuit, she hit the floor with moves that had the judges scratching their heads and the internet furiously typing.
Three battles later, she was knocked out with a record-breaking score of zero across the board. The judges weren’t feeling the kangaroo vibe, and neither were her competitors, who felt that her routine was about as out of place as a vegan at a BBQ.
But Gunn wasn’t about to bounce away quietly. She took to Instagram, urging people to “be different” and “represent yourself.” She admitted she couldn’t compete athletically with her younger, sprightlier rivals and wanted to stand out by, well, hopping to the beat of her own drum. Australia’s Chef de Mission, Anna Meares, backed her up, reminding everyone that Gunn had faced plenty of hurdles in her career, including being the only woman in a male-dominated sport back in 2008. “It took great courage for her to continue on,” Meares said, probably while side-eyeing the haters.
Meanwhile, professional breakers worldwide were not impressed. “It made a mockery of the Australian scene,” said Spice, a retired breaker who wasn’t about to sugarcoat anything. In hip-hop, you either “step up or step off,” and Spice felt Gunn should’ve stuck to the sidelines for this one.
As if things couldn’t get more dramatic, rumours started swirling that Gunn’s husband was a national coach and had somehow rigged the selection process. Spoiler alert: that turned out to be fake. Yet, despite the debunking, the backlash continued, culminating in a petition in which 50,000 people signed demanding Gunn apologise for, well, existing at the Olympics.
Amid the chaos, Te Hiiritanga Wepiha, a judge at the Olympics from New Zealand, defended Gunn, calling her entry “courageous” and admitting they all knew she was in for a rough time. But Gunn took the punches and kept her head high, even posting a video asking everyone to chill out on the trolling and to leave her family and the breaking community out of it. The petition was eventually pulled, and Gunn’s critics were left hopping mad without a cause.
In the end, whether you see Raygun’s performance as a bold artistic statement which helped promote the sport of breaking or just a giant hop in the wrong direction, one thing’s for sure—she's left a mark on the 2024 Olympics that won’t be forgotten anytime soon. So, ladies and gentlemen of the panel, the question is: Was it a brave leap of faith or just a kangaroo-sized misstep?
WOW 🦘