The family of Olympic breaker Rachael “RayGun” Gunn have spoken out against the judges at the inaugural breaking event at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
As Australia’s first female representative in the sport, the 36-year-old scored a disappointing 0 points during three rounds of the round-robin competition. In the lead-up to the Olympics, Gunn was coached by her husband and fellow breaker Samuel Free — which is arguably very cute. According to the Daily Mail, Samuel’s father Andrew has commented in support of his daughter-in-law on social media.
“It was a pretty stacked competition and the judges were clearly looking for a certain style of breaking which is not Rachael’s,” he reportedly said in what appears to be a now-deleted comment.
“Although they are supposed to mark five different aspects with each having the same weighting, in my obviously biased opinion they did not reward originality and musicality so she was up against it.
“The main thing is she represented Australia and breaking at the Olympics with courage and dignity.”
Although Gunn scored terribly in her event, Olympic head judge Martin Gilian — who also goes by the name MGbility — has praised Gunn for her unique moves.
“Breaking is all about originality and bringing something new to the table and representing your country or region,” he said, per CNN.
“This is exactly what Raygun was doing. She got inspired by her surroundings, which in this case, for example, was a kangaroo.”
Although Gilian conceded that her skill level might not be on par with the other competitors, he did reiterate that she qualified for the competition fairly, just like everyone else.
“That doesn’t mean that she did really bad. She did her best. She won the Oceania qualifier. Unfortunately for her, the other B-girls were better,” he continued.
“She was trying to be original and bring something new to the table. From our perspective, that was nothing really shocking.”
I have so many mixed feelings about Gunn’s Olympic performance. On one hand, it’s a hilariously brilliant performance piece and an example of someone truly giving something a crack. But on the other, was Gunn the best choice as our country’s first-ever breaking representative? Breaking has so many ties with hip-hop and Black culture, so it would’ve been nice to see a POC fill that role.
Either way, I think it’s important to recognise that it’s all very well and good to have a bit of a laugh but the bullying that Gunn has copped is not okay. Let’s all keep things mindful and demure, shall we?
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