How did Raygun get selected for the Olympics?

The World Dance Sport Federation (WDSF) announced its qualification system in April 2022, which includes three qualifying events for Australians: the WDSF World Championships, the Oceania Championships and the Olympic Qualifying Series. A maximum of two male and two female competitors will be selected to represent Australia at the Olympic Games.

The ABA, now called Ausbreaking, selected two Australian women to compete in the first qualifier: the world championships in Belgium last September. Gunn, who was ranked first in 2021 and second in 2022 and 2023, was sent to Belgium along with Molly Chapman, who was second in 2021, first in 2022 and fourth in 2023.

The winner will automatically qualify for the Paris event. Chapman finished 79th out of 80 entrants, while Gunn finished 64th, meaning neither qualified.

How was Gunn chosen?

The next possible chance for an Australian to qualify for breakdancing was to win the WDSF Oceania Championships held at Sydney Town Hall in October of that year. Anyone who qualified for the Olympics could enter, regardless of Australia’s ranking.

The competition was judged by 10 professional judges, including judges from Japan and South Korea. There were 37 male contestants and 15 female contestants.

On the first day of the competition, only eight contestants remained, and Gunn became the highest-scoring female contestant.

The next day, Gunn defeated three competitors including Chapman in the final round to win and qualify for the Olympics.

The last chance to qualify for Paris was at the Olympic qualifying tournaments in Shanghai and Budapest earlier this year. Three Australian women, including Chapman, competed but none of them qualified.

What do the spoilers think of this process?

Breakers interviewed by this newspaper expressed a lack of interest The sport’s place in the Olympics. Most were reluctant to speak publicly for fear of being seen as critical of the sport or Gunn, but one of Australia’s current top 10 female surfers said they did not like the current selection process. They still voiced their support for Gunn, however.

Lucas Marie, a breaker on the Ausbreaking selection committee, said the low number of breakers taking part in the qualifiers reflected the size of the current scene and the resources Ausbreaking had to attract new dancers.

“I don’t think there’s anything exclusive about these events unless they’re open to the best dancers in Australia and New Zealand,” he said.

“But I would say the government doesn’t provide enough funding for Ausbreaking. The funding provided by the government is really small and not enough to get different communities involved. Of course, some children may not know about this event or may not come to participate.

“Ausbreaking is actually run by the community through Lowe (Napalan); he has a full-time job, (and) it’s not something he can do alone.”

Gunn, at least, is very aware of how lucky she is to have qualified, telling the Times ahead of the Olympics: “I’m honestly very lucky to have this opportunity – lucky to have reached this stage in my breakdancing career, lucky that we qualified for Oceania, lucky that it’s in Paris.”

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