Australian breakers say Rachael Gunn won her spot fair and square but that there are flaws in selection process

For Australia’s B-girls, it’s been a tough 72 hours. As Rachael “Raygun” Gunn went viral after her performance at the Paris Olympics, the tight-knit breaking community at home has been dealing with the fallout.

“It’s really affected us. We’ve got B-girls in tears about it,” says Leah Clark, who has been a B-girl for the last 24 years and runs a dance performance space in Brisbane.

“How do I go to work now and try to get our sponsorship and get our grant money for breaking programs [for a sport] that’s just been made a mockery of? And how do we go and represent our country at other world level events when Australia’s been made a fool of? … This is actually affecting us on a much larger scale than just memes.”

While much of the global reaction to Gunn’s performance has been jovial or supportive, with Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, praising the cultural studies academic for having “a crack”, there have also been darker elements.

Clark says she has been trolled online and has received prank phone calls at work. Many Australian B-girls have had to switch their social media accounts to private to dodge the hate; others have posted online about feeling despair over breaking’s depiction on the world stage.

Those in the Australian street dance community describe Gunn as a respected member of the local scene – but say her performance at the Olympics doesn’t represent the standard of breaking in Australia.

“We feel for Rachael, and we hope that she’s OK with the hate that she’s getting, but at the same time, we’re disappointed,” says Clark.

Gunn received zero points during the Olympics competition, though top judge Martin Gilian told the media later this was indicative of a competitive system: “Breaking is all about originality and bringing something new to the table … and this is exactly what Raygun was doing.”

B-girls say Gunn won her spot in the Olympics fair and square. But they also report that the qualifying process was flawed and locked out many of the country’s best talents.

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