Australia made a strange choice sending 36-year-old academic Rachael Gunn to the Paris 2024 Olympics to debut in women’s breakdancing. In 2022, Gunn was given more than AUD$20,000 to lead a research study on “Spaces for Street Dance.” Her LinkedIn page says she is “interested in the cultural politics of breaking.”Gunn, who’s breaker name is RayGun, caused a major splash on the internet appearing in the Games’ first-ever breakdancing category, where she failed so epically she earned zero points from the judges. Video footage shows RayGun tossing herself about the stage like a fish out of water, in a spectacle so odd it went viral on the internet. Notable “breakdance moves” included kangaroo hopping, snake slithering and the sprinkler. This was the first and only time breakdancing will ever feature in the Games as an Olympic sport. .Contrasted with other Olympic breakdancers, the Aussie is leagues behind. Gunn told ESPN over the weekend she knew going into the Olympic event she would never stand a chance against the other competitors — who were much younger, trained Olympic athletes. "All of my moves are original," said Raygun. "I go out there, and I show my artistry. Sometimes it speaks to the judges, and sometimes it doesn't. I do my thing, and it represents art. That is what it is about."“I was never going to beat these girls on what they do best — their power moves," said Raygun ahead of competing against American Logistx, 21, France's Syssy, 16, and Lithuania's Nicka, 17. "What I bring is creativity." .It makes one wonder — does she, and the Australian officials who sent her, think the Olympics is a woke joke?.Multiple netizens point out the scholar, who has a PhD in “cultural movement” and is a professor at Macquarie University in Sydney, petitioned (successfully) Australian officials to let her compete in the Olympics to advance her academic career by becoming a household name. .Popular YouTuber Hannah Berrelli blatantly called out Gunn for having misplaced ambitions. "Turns out Rachael Gunn here has a PhD in cultural studies, with a specialty in the gender politics of movement and breakdance," wrote Berrelli on Twitter ("X"). "She has written about how including break dance in the Olympics changes it from a practice within an alternative subculture, to a hegemonic one that incorporates the dance into what she sees as Australia’s settler colonialist project. I am 100% certain what she is doing here, in wearing the Australia kit even, is trying to make some subversive point she can later write journal articles about." ."This whole episode is demonstrative of the supreme selfishness of woke identity politics studies. Her little stunt diminishes Australia on the world stage. Hundreds of Australian athletes who will have dedicated their entire lives to athletic excellence will be forgotten, because Rachael wanted to bulk up her ResearchGate profile. Rather than their medals and efforts, this is what Australia will be remembered for.".Gunn’s academic background focuses on the “politics of gender and gender performance” and “the methodological dynamics between theory and practice,” according to the Daily Mail. The publication reported her wrote a paper entitled, The Australian breaking scene and the Olympic Games: the possibilities and politics of sportification. In it, Gunn argues Olympic commercialization of breakdancing contradicts the “spirit” of the performance. “This trajectory points towards an increasing loss of self-determination, agency and spontaneity for local Australian breakers and will have profound consequences for the way in which hip hop personhood is constantly ‘remade and renegotiated’ in Australia,” reads Gunn’s paper. .Head judge and breakdancer Martin Gilian (stage name: MGbility) commended Gunn on her “originality,” and offered her mental support after the social media backlash she faced after the Olympic flop. “Breaking is all about originality and bringing something new to the table and representing your country or region,” said Gilian afterwards in a press conference. “This is exactly what Raygun was doing. She got inspired by her surroundings, which in this case, for example, was a kangaroo.” .Olympic chef de mission Anna Meares said Gunn is “the best” Australia has to offer and anyone who opposes is a misogynist. “(Gunn) is the best breakdancer female that we have for Australia,” said Meares at a press conference. “Now you look at the history of what we have had as women athletes, have faced in terms of criticism, belittlement, judgment, and simple comments like 'they shouldn't be there',” she said“One-hundred years ago, leading into Paris 1924, Australia sent a team of 37 athletes — none were women. One-hundred years later, we have 256 women representing here.” .Fellow breakdancer and judge Lucas Marie, who is also an academic and “friend of Rachel’s,” argued Gunn has won “second or third” in multiple local competitions over the last “five or ten years,” per the ABC. "It's not like gymnastics where there's this kind of agreed-upon standard," he said."It's always had a rawness to it. It's always had an improvisational kind of quality. And I think looking different and trying different stuff has always been celebrated.”"I thought — and this is how I judge a lot of breaking events — I thought, 'Oh, she's making some really interesting choices to mimic Australian animals.' And you can kind of see the choices that she's making in the moment."He noted, however, there may have been other Australian break dancers more eligible but couldn;t afford to go to the Olympics. "Of course, there's breakers all over the country that maybe should have been in that event, but they weren't,” he added.
