The 2024 Paris Olympics marked breaking’s debut as a sport on the international occasion, with 36-year-old lecturer and breaker Rachael “Raygun” Gunn representing Australia for the primary time.
Having did not win a single level in any of her Olympic bouts, Raygun shortly grew to become a viral sensation.
The query on many individuals’s minds now could be: How did she even qualify?
Lucas Marie is a breaker who has competed, carried out, taught and judged breaking competitions over the previous 25 years. He is additionally an anthropologist who lately co-authored an article with Gunn.
He says the reply to that query is easy.
“There was an Oceania qualifier wherein any B-boy or B-girl from Australia [or] New Zealand may enter, and that was in Sydney in October 2023,” he instructed ABC Information.
“And main as much as that, there have been lots of different occasions wherein breakers had been competing.
“She gained these battles truthful and sq. and gained the qualification in Sydney.
“And it wasn’t actually a shock to anybody.
“She’s been pretty constant, profitable or coming second or third at lots of breaking occasions in Australia for the final 5 to 10 years.”
Marie mentioned there was nothing out of the extraordinary about Raygun’s efficiency.
“It is not like gymnastics the place there’s this sort of agreed-upon normal,” he mentioned.
“It is at all times had a rawness to it. It is at all times had an improvisational form of high quality. And I believe wanting totally different and making an attempt totally different stuff has at all times been celebrated.
“And I believe Raygun, in a method, was simply expressing a core form of hip hop trait in a method lots of breakers do.”
He described her efforts as daring.
“I believed — and that is how I decide lots of breaking occasions — I believed, ‘Oh, she’s making some actually attention-grabbing selections to imitate Australian animals.’ And you’ll form of see the alternatives that she’s making within the second.”
Is she the very best Australia has to supply?
Workforce Australia chef de mission Anna Meares insisted after Raygun’s efficiency that she was the very best breaker the nation needed to supply. However is that this true?
“It is generally simply who’s performing higher on the day,” Marie mentioned.
“And on the qualification occasion wherein she gained, and different occasions wherein she’s gained, she carried out higher on that day and gained the ticket.
“That does not imply she’s the very best. It does not actually work like that.
“I believe she’s an excellent breaker. She gained the qualification. She’s gained different occasions prior to now, and he or she was a very good consultant for Australia at that competitors.”
Requested whether or not there have been B-girls in Perth, regional Victoria or rural Brisbane who might need certified however couldn’t afford to journey to Sydney for the tryouts, Marie agreed this was doable.
“After all, there’s breakers everywhere in the nation that perhaps ought to have been in that occasion, however they weren’t.”
Breaking is not going to carry over to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, a choice made earlier than Raygun’s battle.
Marie described this as unhappy.
“Perhaps, primarily based on the rankings, they will reassess that and perhaps allocate some medals to breaking,” he mentioned.
“I actually hope that is the case, and I hope that for different breakers who wish to compete in it as a dance sport.”
Marie mentioned that on the finish of the day individuals ought to bear in mind they had been coping with a human.
“As a good friend of Rachael’s, there is a human being who’s getting lots of detrimental consideration,” he mentioned.
“I believe individuals form of miss that generally and overlook the human side of all this.”
‘Toying with the tradition’
Malik Dixon is an African American who has been residing in Australia for greater than a decade and is a Sydney College graduate.
He mentioned Raygun made a complete “mockery” out of breaking on the Olympics.
“She was dressed like a member of the cricket crew or an Australian PE instructor, and from that time it simply appeared like satire,” Mr Dixon instructed ABC Information.
“It simply regarded like anyone who was toying with the tradition and did not understand how culturally important it was being the primary time within the Olympics and simply how vital it was to individuals who actually cherish hip hop and one of many parts of hip hop, which is breakdancing.
“It made me assume, was Borat her breakdancing coach?”
Mr Dixon mentioned too many individuals felt entitled to African American tradition.
“The African American area has been one the place we have shared our group a lot and with none restraints, any obstacles, roadblocks, obstacles, any gatekeepers, that basically what ought to have been African American cultural capital is simply shared, which is cool,” he mentioned.
“We wish to share, proper?
“We shared 400 years of free labour.
“To see Rachael in her try and be part of the tradition simply be grossly underwhelming made it appear to be she did not take it critically.”
Olympics physique criticised for Raygun qualification
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Mr Dixon criticised the physique that certified Raygun, saying she devalued breaking along with her efficiency.
“No matter governing physique nominated her as Australia’s entrant into the Olympics both didn’t perceive the project or did not actually imagine within the integrity or significance of breakdancing, as a result of in the event that they did they might simply say, slightly than disrespect the tradition, we’re simply not able to ship an applicant this 12 months.”
He mentioned Raygun was extraordinarily audacious and never self-aware.
“You have to know your function, know your place, know your limitation,” he mentioned.
“And I believe that a part of privilege is saying that there aren’t any limits to what I can do.
“A part of privilege is having the authority to say that there aren’t any limits and there aren’t any necessities, there aren’t any stipulations to what I can do.”
Raygun’s levels don’t maintain a lot water with Mr Dixon.
“Because of consumerism, this Foundational Black American product, which is hip hop, is international,” he mentioned.
“And even individuals who don’t have any connection to any African Individuals or any native or regional issues that come out in these songs, they’ve turn into part of the entire expertise now.
“If I got here in and mentioned that I used to be an authority on Greek music and I used to be going towards the grain of what the mainstream Greek musicians thought, or the varsity of thought, and I’ve mentioned that I used to be the authority, individuals would examine me on that.
“If I had a PhD in sprinting, does that qualify me to go towards Noah Lyles? No, it does not.”
He additionally doubts Raygun was the very best breaker Australia needed to supply.
“[There’s] obtained to be anyone out right here that is higher than that! The kangaroo! The sprinkler! She did the sprinkler on the market, man!” he mentioned.
Ought to everyone simply loosen up?
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Ought to we loosen up? Mr Dixon doesn’t imagine so.
“Larrikinism is used as a get-out-of-jail-free card and to flee accountability of how phrases or actions influence a damage individual,” he mentioned.
“However when the bulk tradition is offended, there isn’t any taking part in round.
“This is part of my tradition, and I do not assume Australians are in a spot to inform me how I ought to really feel about breakdancing being mocked on a world stage.
“Individuals who have no or restricted entry to black individuals or hip hop tradition now may even see Rachael and her buffoonery as a illustration of hip hop and black tradition.
“Individuals who had been already side-eyeing breakdancing as an Olympic sport, Rachael Gunn has put the nail in that coffin.
“This is likely to be essentially the most viral clip of the entire Olympics. From a comedy standpoint, she’s obtained it, however from an Olympics perspective, its regressive.”
