First of all, I apologize in advance for writing a second blog on the subject of Olympic breakdancing, but I have been fascinated by Raygun since she burst onto the internet last Friday with what I will now say was the worst performance in the history of the Olympics. In any sport. Even worse than when Derek Redmond burst into tears mid-race and his father had to come out of the crowd to carry him across the finish line.
I’m sorry, I’m sorry, that’s a joke. That was the first Olympic moment that came to mind. Just kidding, Derek. I’m not comparing you to Raygun. You were a legitimate competitor and that was a very touching moment.
For 99% of the world’s population who never think about breakdancing, Raygun’s performance at the Olympics was nothing more than a funny viral moment. But you have to feel sorry for the other breakdancers. Almost no one can tell you who won the Olympic gold in men’s or women’s breakdancing. But everyone knows who Raygun is.
You also have to feel sorry for the other Australian Olympians. They won the fourth most gold medals of any country (18). In total they won 53 medals. But for a large part of the world that doesn’t follow the Olympics closely, Raygun’s “breakdancing” is the only thing they will remember. If you google “Olympics Australia” you will find more stories about Raygun than any other Australian. It’s really quite sad. But for heaven’s sake, do NOT try to tell that to Australia’s “chief of mission”, Anna Meares.
I think Raygun’s difficulties in the breakdancing world are beside the point. Australia sent a terrible breakdancer to the Olympics. During the competition, Raygun jumped into her face like a kangaroo in response to her opponent spinning around on her head. It’s just objectively hilarious.
Secondly, I’m sorry Anna Mears, but I can tell you unequivocally, without ever having been to Australia… without knowing a single Australian… without knowing a single breakdancer or knowing anything about the sport of breakdancing… Raygun is not the best breakdancer in your country. I refuse to believe that. I guarantee you there are breakdancers in Australia who didn’t get the chance to qualify who would have been better than her. They probably had no idea there was a qualification at all. Besides, I could have probably found you five other Australian Olympians with far better athletic ability who, with a week’s training, would have done better than what Raygun showed us.
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But supposedly Raygun is the best breakdancer in Australia who has the means to qualify. I did a bit of research to find out exactly how the qualification process worked in Australia. I wanted to see how the heck Raygun’s qualification even happened. And as you might have guessed, there is a huge controversy about how breakdancing was handled at this year’s Olympics.
Fox Sports – The first international “Battle” recognized by the IOC took place in 1997 – but the breakthrough for the sport came with its admission to the 2018 Youth Olympic Games.
The problem was that it took the breaking community completely by surprise.
An uproar broke out after the World DanceSport Federation launched an attempt to enter the Olympic program, which some viewed as an underhanded plot.
The WDSF originally wanted to incorporate ballroom dancing into the Games, but was aware that this dance was considered too outdated to reach the audience that Olympic officials so desperately wanted to reach – Generation Z.
With no official global federation to challenge them, the WDSF focused on breakdancing. And suddenly the sport was at the Olympics.
So you have these ballroom dancing experts in the World DanceSport Federation who have wormed their way into qualifying for the Olympic breakdancing program. They don’t know shit about the sport. Breakdancers all over the world were pissed. Many of the leading minds in breakdancing were vehemently opposed to it being included in the competition. They would rather not have it included at all than have the WDSF run it. They knew that if the WDSF was running it, the whole thing would be a joke.
Serouj “Midus” Aprahamian, an assistant professor of dance at the University of Illinois and a leading opponent of breakdancing’s inclusion in the Olympics, summed up the controversy when he wrote a petition against the WDSF in the run-up to the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Argentina.
“The WDSF is a ballroom dance competition organization. It has no affiliation or credibility with any legitimate organization in the worldwide breakdancing community,” he wrote.
“The fact that the IOC allowed these fraudsters to monitor breaking at the Youth Olympic Games is a farce and a scandal.
“Would the IOC allow the World Badminton Federation to oversee baseball? Would it allow the Equestrian Federation to oversee motor racing? Why should the Olympic Games accept such an antagonistic and illegitimate organization as the WDSF that has anything to do with breakdancing?
“This action is immoral, illogical and an insult to the hundreds of thousands of B-Boys and B-Girls around the world who live and breathe this culture.”
It’s like making Olympic writing an event, but then putting Barstool Sports in charge of organizing it. We’d still welcome the best writers in the world to participate. We’d even hire legitimate writers, professors, and real writers to help us put on a legitimate competition. But we’ll still screw it up because we’re not real writers. And of course, many of the best writers in the world would never consider participating because they don’t respect Barstool Sports. Why would they? Even if we’re technically affiliated with the Olympics.
And I guess since the World DanceSport Federation doesn’t know much about breakdancing, that’s why they thought Australia was worthy of a spot. Even though there was no official breakdancing association in Australia and no legitimate organization in charge of breakdancing competitions. Guess who took charge when they came to Australia to inquire about the breakdancing scene?
The sport was equally disorganized in Australia when it made its big appearance in 2019 and its inclusion in the Olympic Games was confirmed.
Australia had no recognised national association, so, as the SMH reported, Gunn accepted the challenge.
“It was as if they were saying, ‘This is part of the Olympics now,'” she said.
“So we better make sure we’re not misrepresented. People were really worried about what happened in the ’80s when the narrative kind of deviated from breaking and a lot of the culture and the history was lost.
“We had to make sure we had a seat at the table, even if it wasn’t something we had planned or necessarily dreamed of.”
I’m not sure how involved Gunn was with the WDSF and exactly what role she played in organizing the competitions (if any). But Australia did hold its qualifiers. And guess who finished first, securing the only automatic qualification spot for the Australian women? Raygun.
In October 2023, the first WDSF Oceania Breaking Championships took place at Sydney Town Hall. 37 B-Boys and 15 B-Girls from around the Pacific competed for the incredible prize of the chance to become an Olympian. The event was broadcast live worldwide on the Olympic Channel.
16-year-old Jeff “J-Attack” Dunne won the B-Boys competition, while Raygun took gold in the B-Girls category.
I’m not even sure Raygun deserved to win. The girl in green wasn’t impressive by any means, but she could at least do a little legwork. And as if that scene didn’t make it clear enough that Australia’s breakdancing was about to make national news in a not so great way, Australia’s second, third and fourth place finishers attempted to qualify via the Olympic Qualifier Series… a 40-woman breakdancing competition… Australia’s girls finished 37th, 38th and 40th.
This is how Raygun is created.
It’s almost as if Raygun, whose PhD thesis was titled “Deterritorialising Gender in Sydney’s Breakdancing Scene: A B-Girl’s Experience of B-Boying”, just loved breakdancing so much that no one in Australia had the heart to cross her. I mean… she’s literally a breakdancing professor. I’m shocked that even exists. It’s as if in the end they just said, “Oh well, we’re probably going to suck anyway. We might as well let Raygun join in since she cares more about breakdancing than anyone else in the world.”
I still think there are far better female breakdancers in Australia. There must be a homeless man somewhere in Sydney making $30 a day in change spinning on a cardboard box who stuffs Raygun into a locker. I’m not saying that Raygun or the good people at the WDSF were intentionally not looking for the best female breakdancers in Australia. I just don’t think they even knew how to find them. It was terribly disorganized from the start and Raygun was the one who took the initiative.
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The Olympics tried to rush an event that probably never should have been an Olympic, and it ended up creating the most embarrassing viral moment of the entire Olympics. For better or worse (probably for better), breakdancing was a one-off at the Olympics. At every Olympics, the host country gets a chance to give a regionally popular sport a chance to shine, and for some reason, Paris chose to do so. And if, for some reason, breakdancing makes a comeback at future Olympics, maybe they should just put the blame on Red Bull.
And maybe make sure Australia’s invitation gets lost in the mail.
