Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
Last Friday Rachael Gunn, aka “Raygun”, a 36-year-old Australian university lecturer, took to the stage in the Paris Olympics breakdancing (breaking) competition and quickly went viral.
Her routine included bouncing around like a kangaroo and doing a “sprinkler” dance commonly performed by men who can’t dance at all.
She won zero points in her three round-robin contests, but it turns out she has a PhD in cultural studies and wrote a paper on breaking’s inclusion at the Olympics.
Her own inclusion in the Games was by dint of winning the 2023 Oceania Breaking Championship.
“I was never going to beat these girls on what they do best, the dynamic and the power moves,” she said of her competitors. “So I wanted to move differently, be artistic and creative…”
Some say she gamed the system for something new to write about. The breaking federation says it has offered mental health support in the wake of online criticism.
