PARIS.- Breaking made its debut as an Olympic sport Friday, and among the competitors was Rachael Gunn, also known as B-girl Raygun, a 36-year-old professor from Sydney, who stood out in just about every way.
By day, her research interests include “dance, gender politics, and the dynamics between theoretical and practical methodologies.” But on the world’s stage in Paris, wearing green track pants and a green polo shirt instead of the street-style outfits of her much younger fellow breakers, she competed against 21-year-old Logan Edra of the United States, known as Logistx.
During the round robin, as Raygun and Logistx faced off, Raygun lay on her side, reached for her toes, spun around and threw in a kangaroo hop — a nod to her homeland. She performed a move that looked something like swimming and another that could best be described as duckwalking. The high-speed back and head spins that other breakers would demonstrate were mostly absent.
The crowd cheered Raygun politely. The judges weren’t as kind. All nine voted for Logistx in both rounds of the competition; Logistx won, 18-0.
Online, Raygun’s performance quickly became a sensation, not necessarily in a flattering way.
“The more I watch the videos of Raygun, the Aussie breaker, the more I get annoyed,” one viewer posted on the social platform X. “There’s 27.7 million Australians in the world and that’s who they send to the Olympics for this inaugural event??? C’mon now!”
Another wrote, “I am so embarrassed for our nation.”
The world’s participation in the Games means that every Olympics produces competitors who are earnest but overmatched, such as British ski jumper Michael Edwards, known as Eddie the Eagle, in 1988 or Ethiopian swimmer Robel Kiros Habte in 2016.
Gunn, who has a doctorate in cultural studies from Macquarie University and has a background as a ballroom, jazz and tap dancer, takes the anthropological aspect of breaking seriously.
“The visibility and legitimacy that come with being an Olympic sport will expand professional opportunities for breakers. This is particularly significant for an activity as diverse as breaking,” she wrote last month in The Economist. “Breaking provides an opportunity to explore the ‘faster, higher, stronger’ ethos of the Olympics in new ways. It shows us that we truly don’t know every point on which the body can spin or launch its weight, the different shapes it can make, or all the ways it can move.”
The Paris Games added breaking as part of an effort to appeal to a younger audience. The art form was born on the streets, with its roots in New York City’s hip-hop community. Some of breaking’s pioneers are dubious about its inclusion in an organized competition.
“I don’t think it’s an accurate representation of what breaking is,” Odylle Beder, a B-girl from Brooklyn who is known as Mantis, said in 2023. “Breaking is a lot more organic, and the way that we do it in the Olympics is, like, ‘Do a round. Stop, look at what your score is. Now do another round.’”
But for some people, there was entertainment value in watching Raygun perform.
“There has not been an Olympic performance this dominant since Usain Bolt’s 100m sprint at Beijing in 2008,” one viewer wrote on X. “Honestly, the moment Raygun broke out her Kangaroo move this competition was over! Give her the #breakdancing gold (gold medal emoji)”
Logistx is among those who feel strongly that breaking is not taken seriously enough. Although the sport was welcomed at the Paris Games, it will not be part of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“As dancers, we’ve always been the bottom of the totem pole,” she said in an interview last week. “We’ve never really been recognized as athletes.”
She had faith that the Games would shine a light on breaking and seal its legitimacy as a sport. “To be here, and to have access to these resources, and to stand next to a lot of legends in sports,” she said, “this is like all of the most high level athletes.”
This article originally appeared in
The New York Times.
