Not the entire world was laughing at Raygun, we guess. No, some folks are hopping mad!
The Australian contender in the Olympics‘ first foray into Breakdancing made a name for herself right away — as a joke. With some rudimentary moves and comical kangaroo hops, Rachael Gunn made clear she had no business being in a competition of the world’s most skilled breakers. While most were happy to laugh and enjoy the memes as she scored zero points, plenty of viewers pointed out some real irksome issues with her performance.
First, it ridiculed their sport/art form on an international stage. Second, she took a spot that should have gone to one of the most talented b-girls in Oz… which she most definitely is not. So how the heck did she get there??
Video: Rachel Dratch’s Parody Of Viral Olympic Breakdancer Raygun Gets ALL THE POINTS!!!
That’s what a petition launched Sunday intends to find out. The change.org page entitled “Hold Raygun Rachel Gunn & Anna Mears Accountable for Unethical Conduct Olympic Selection” already has a whopping 54,255 signatures as of this writing. Wow.
The petition’s creators call for “immediate accountability and transparency in the recent actions of” Raygun and Anna Meares “in the selection process for Australia’s female breakdancer representative.” Meares is Australia’s chef de mission, meaning she’s responsible for the whole Aussie team. And she called Raygun the “best breakdancer, female” in Oz. Which… No.
The authors are nominally looking for proof, but they already seem to have their theories. They make the bold claim that Rachael, who wrote her PhD thesis on breakdancing but is trained as a ballroom dancer, “manipulated the selection process to her own advantage.” They accuse her of having a hand in organizing the Aussie qualifier — which would be bad enough — but also specifically of refusing entry to more skilled groups. They specifically mention the “NT Youlong Boys, a group of incredibly talented and underprivileged youth from the Northern Territory.” And they go on to argue just the fact she won over the other breakdancers in the qualifier raises “serious questions about the fairness and integrity of the process.”
We mean… fair?
Now, the petition also mentions some of the conspiracy theories that have been going around. They mention Gunn’s husband being “the Australian coach and part of the selection panel.” Our understanding is he’s Raygun’s coach, which is actually a really common thing — and that he was NOT a judge on the committee who picked Australia’s contender. Whether he and/or his wife knew the people involved, whether they had some edge… that’s less clear.
But we have learned the entire competition was, for some reason, run by a competitive ballroom organization. The World DanceSport Federation, or WDSF, has been trying to get ballroom dancing into the Olympics for years, to no avail. It was apparently seen as too old-fashioned. Near as anyone can tell they pivoted to breakdancing due to its novelty — not to mention athleticism similar to gymnastics. Breaking was added to the Youth Olympics in 2018, giving the WDSF a foot in the door. Only that shoe was clad in a high top instead of a high heel.
The WDSF’s sudden control over breakdancing in the Olympics was extremely controversial. Perhaps the most salient argument was put forth by Serouj “Midus” Aprahamian, assistant professor of dance at the University of Illinois. He wrote in his own petition back in 2018:
“The WDSF is a competitive ballroom dance organization. It has absolutely no connection or credibility with any legitimate entity in the worldwide breaking community. That the IOC has allowed these impostors to oversee breaking at the Youth Olympics is a travesty and a scandal.”
He made the amazing points:
“Would the IOC allow the Badminton World Federation to oversee baseball? Would it allow the Federation for Equestrian Sports to oversee auto-racing? Why would the Olympics accept such a polar opposite and illegitimate entity as the WDSF to have anything to do with breaking? This action is immoral, illogical, and insulting to the hundreds of thousands of B-boys and B-girls worldwide who live and breathe this culture.”
OK, so if you assume Midus was right back then… suddenly the whole thing makes a lot more sense, right? If the people putting this whole thing together (or more accurately choosing the smaller organizations to put together qualifiers in their countries) was a bunch of ballroom dancers, no wonder ballroom dancers were suddenly the ones representing the sport.
That’s what happened in Australia. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, there was no national breakdancing body so a bunch of WDSF-affiliated dancers who consider themselves b-boys and b-girls were the ones who became either competitors or officials. Gunn and her husband Samuel Free, who consider themselves to be “top breakers” in Australia, were among them. Neither was a judge, but it sounds like it was a very small community from which all the competitors and judges were chosen. There were only 15 female dancers competing in the WDSF Oceania Breaking Championships to get a spot in the Olympics. 15 from all of Australia??? Seems like a small number, right??
We agree with the petitioners it’s worth looking into how close all these people were, whether there was anything more at play than just finding the best breakers. We’d especially like to know if underprivileged breakers were held out of the competition by ballroom dancers. After all, the Herald notes the big resurgence of breaking in Oz starting in the ’90s was “mostly among marginalised communities in disadvantaged areas.” Hmm.
What do YOU think, Perezcious readers?? You can see (and maybe sign) the petition for yourself HERE!
[Image via NBC/YouTube/Twitter.]
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