Is Raygun, the sensational and influential disruptor at the Olympics, worthy of attending?

October 2023 World DanceSport FederationWDSF has learned that the sport of breakdancing, which they have been trying to get into the Olympics for years, will not be at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

In response, WDSF President Shawn Tay issued a grand statement. He said: “Ensuring breakdance’s debut at the 2024 Paris Olympics is a success is at the top of the WDSF agenda.” explain“Our performance in Paris will determine the future of dance at the Olympic level.”

Enter the game, Breaking down a lot of riding But no one expected Regan, the recently infamous 36-year-old Australian b-girl (breaker), to finish last, with her Performance On the Paris stage, the antics included bizarre floor twists, awkward freeze frames, and “original” moves like the kangaroo hop.

Rachael Gunn, whose real name is Rachael Gunn, shot to fame overnight after becoming an internet sensation, and her fame skyrocketed when the public learned that Gunn, who has never competed in the Olympics, actually has a doctorate in breakdancing. Yes, it is.. Gunn’s performance not only overshadowed the two real break gold medalists, Japan’s Yuasa Ami and Canada Phil Weitz (And 16-year-old Australian b-boy Jeff Dunn), which was undoubtedly a decisive moment for the Paris Olympics mark go through dispute and absurd.

But aside from the widespread ridicule of Gunn himself, there was also speculation that Gunn’s participation in the Olympics must be some kind of mistake, or even corruption. Surely this couldn’t be the best that Australia has to offer? For example, in Melbourne last weekend, several b-girls were performing these moves. How could Gunn be in the Olympics?

To answer that question, we have to dig a little deeper – so let’s (sorry) get started.

For decades, WDSF Dedicated to ballroom dancingThe association was founded in the late 90s with a focus on Olympic ballroom dancing before switching to breakdancing around 2017. It’s a convoluted backstory, but it doesn’t take away from the legitimacy of the organization. Official sealAKA Rush, one of the judges for the Oceania Championships Women’s Breakdance Finals, Gunn released a 90-minute live stream Instagram Comments On Tuesday, he responded to the controversy, noting that the WDSF judging system used in the Olympics and breakdancing qualifying competitions requires judges to be veterans of the breakdancing world, both as competitors and judges, and to pass multiple exams. “You have to be trained to be a judge,” he insisted.

This isn’t Gunn’s first time competing in competitive events either. Prior to competing in the Olympics, she represented Australia at several world championships between 2021 and 2023. judge Red Bull’s most outstanding BC One ice-breaking competition. She is recognized as the local champion.

However, after Gunn competed in the Olympics, petition A petition has circulated claiming that Gunn and her husband, breakdancing coach Samuel Free, rigged the entire WDSF system to qualify for the Olympics without any source. The petition falsely claims that Gunn judged the Oceania Championships qualifiers herself – even though the referee list for that event was Ready to use On the WDSF website.

Other rumors AllegedlyAlso without any apparent source, Gunn and her husband are the brains behind the Australian Breakers Association, better known as Australian News – other It’s easy to be exposed statement. A spokesperson for AUSBreaking further confirmed to Vox in an email that Gunn and her husband did not found the group. Gunn does not appear to be directly responsible for managing or funding any Breaking groups, which likely also negates the petition’s claim that she refused to provide travel funds to a fringe dance group from Australia’s Northern Territory.

The subtext of this criticism is that Gunn benefits from her whiteness, which is not unfounded. Gunn was educated at one of Sydney’s most elite high schools; she had the opportunity to earn a PhD in a little-known field and had enough money to compete in international breakdancing competitions. Her white privilege in a dance world rife with cultural appropriation makes her an easy target for criticism. Meanwhile, some have tried to argue that she represents the exact opposite – a “white woman who is not white enough to be a woman of color.”Diversity Recruitment” and AustraliaAwakening“Something went wrong. People are rushing to use her as a new scapegoat to further their goals,” Wepiha said during the livestream.

“We never thought this would happen,” he told me. “She was exposed by so many people.”

Still, despite the harsh criticism the rest of the world hurled at Gunn after her Paris appearance, the real breakdancing community seems to be Rebound Behind her.

“That’s what happens, especially in Oceania dance, when people outside the dance community want to control the narrative but don’t know anything about our dance,” Dujon Cullingford, a veteran New Zealand dancer who competed in the Oceania qualifiers, told me. Wrote a Facebook post Countering the idea that Gunn benefited from anything other than a small talent pool.

He stressed that the breakdancing community in Oceania is small; Gunn’s own community article The total number of surfers in Australia is estimated to be around 400, and Wepiha claims that the WDSF has to “bring back retirees to make up the number of competitors”. One of the main criticisms of this is that the public Insights WDSF certainly doesn’t promote their events within the “real” breakdancing community, but rather within elite communities such as universities. But both Cullingford and Wepiha dismissed the idea. “It’s easy to tell if there’s a surge because the breakdancing community is small,” Wepiha said.

“We’re feeling the pinch of the cost of living here like other countries, and breakdancing is quite small, so there aren’t a lot of people with the time to teach, lead groups, mobilise communities in the same way,” Mr Carlingford said.

To further narrow the talent pool, he noted that many breakers chose not to compete in the Olympic trials because they didn’t want to spend the big bucks to attend the event in Sydney last November. In addition, many breakers simply had no interest in participating because they felt that attempts to fit breaker into the strict structure of the Olympics went against the grain of street dance culture. According to Wepiha, many dancers felt that informal jams were more expressive and less strictly judged – which was the kind of breaker they wanted to do, not Olympic-level batting.

And then there’s Raygun.

“She did great just like anybody else,” Wepiha said of Gunn’s Oceania qualifier during the livestream. “She won fair and square.” He noted that of the 10 judges at the tournament, only one was white and none were Australian — a fact AUSBreaking also confirmed to Vox. “She won by a majority, she fought just as hard as anybody else… There’s no deep pocket.”

You can judge for yourself: at the Oceania Championships, which Raygun won and qualified for the Olympics, she scored a total of 51 points, while her opponent Holy Molly (Molly Chapman) scored 50. The two faced off in this duel, with Raygun winning two of the three rounds, which was the crucial final score.

Since Gunn became an internet sensation, many people watched the competition and claimed that Molly was the clear winner, but it’s not that simple. First, these judges have seen their overall performances throughout the competition. If Molly repeats moves from previous competitions, while Raygun maintains a unique style, the judges may favor Raygun. Other factors to consider include who focuses more on the beat, which dancer spends more time on the floor instead of transition steps (called toprock), whose moves are more powerful and smooth, whose moves are crisper and more precise, and whose transitions are more interesting.

Previously, Chapman and Gunn both competed in the World Championships in Belgium in September 2023. Although neither of them qualified at the time, Gunn was among the 80 players. Ranking It ranked 64th – a full 15 spots higher than Chapman, who was second from the bottom.

All of which is to say that, despite Gunn’s much-publicized Olympic entrance, it’s not meant to be a hilarious fluke or a sign of privileged corruption. In fact, Gunn has said she intends to bring a sporting style to the Paris Games that isn’t designed to meet expectations but to make an indelible impact.

“What I wanted to do was come here and do something new, different, creative — that’s my strength, my creativity,” Gunn said. Tell ESPN.

“I could never beat these girls at the dynamic and power moves that they do best, so I wanted to do different moves and make it more artistic and creative because how many times in a lifetime do you get to do that.”

Gunn has been thinking about her style. In an academic article on Breaking, she think“Gender norms both expressed and constrained my corporeal potential.” Gunn has also written about what she sees as dance’s “normative construction” of masculinity.

In other words, the weirdness of Gunn’s dancing … might be the point. Besides, in more informal breakdancing venues, it’s not even that weird. “What Regan showed at the Olympics is that breakdancing is a range,” Wepiha said during the livestream. He thinks her style represents the more informal, self-expressive side of street dance. “She goes on stage and does something that a lot of you complain you can never do. She’s being authentic to herself.”

You might ask: But shouldn’t we hold Olympians to a higher standard than we already have, even if that standard is based on male-dominated sports and dance?

Well… do we really know? There are signs that Gunn is the most famous B-girl in the world right now, and while most people laugh at her rather than with her, other B-girls in the wide world of Breaking might feel inspired rather than ashamed and embarrassed.

After all, even by Olympic standards, Gunn’s performance wasn’t too bad. Judges’ RatingsFor example, in her fight against American fighter Logistx, you can see that although she did not win any rounds, some judges thought she beat Logistx in certain subcategories, usually originality. Meanwhile, although Logistx won most categories, she usually won by a few percentage points at most.

In other words, Gunn arguably held her own at the Olympics under the pressure of a lifetime, and she did so while experimenting with her own unique style.

Was it great? No. Was it terrible? Apparently not as terrible as we thought.

This ambiguity brings confusion to us; many (although certainly Not all) Half of the people criticizing Gunn didn’t know what breaking was two weeks ago, while many of those rushing to her defense are veteran breakers. In between are those who just want to be funny. This situation has caused some Australian breakers to Worry This backlash can drive away sponsors and supporters — something Wepiha tells me is already a concern given the lack of government funding for the breakdancing art form.

As for Gunn, “most importantly, she’s a human being,” Wepiha said. “We want her to be OK, first and foremost.”

Yet if there’s anything we’ve learned about iconoclasm, it’s that it takes more than just ridicule.