If you’re anything like me, you may have been quite interested to find out that break dancing had become an Olympic sport. I, for one, was definitely intrigued, though not enough to stay up into the morning to catch the first battles. So imagine my surprise when one of the first TikToks I see the next day is of the Australian women’s breaker! But… what is she doing? Why is she writhing around on the floor like that? Welcome to the latest Olympic meme: Rachel “Raygun” Gunn and her… interesting performance.

A week on from the first breaking round, we now know a lot more about Raygun. She’s 36 years old, teaches at Macquarie University, and did her PhD thesis on some of the cultural aspects of break dancing. But over the past few days, some more unsavoury things have started to spread on social media regarding exactly how she became Australia’s female representative in breaking.

It all started with a petition on change.org directed at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) calling for “immediate accountability and transparency” about how Raygun was selected to compete and demanding a “global public apology”.

The petition alleged that Raygun “set up her own governing body for break dancing” which was then the body that oversaw the Australian qualifying competition, “raising serious questions about the fairness and integrity of the process”. Additionally, the petition implied that Raygun’s husband is the Australian coach, and was part of the selection panel at the qualifiers. The petition concluded by saying that Raygun’s unethical moral standing has tainted the sport of breaking and should bring into question her employment at Macquarie University.

A screenshot of the change.org petition on the 15th of August

After just three days of the petition being published, it had amassed over 53,000 signatures, with the accusations spreading like wildfire across platforms like TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), only further stoked by the constant meme-ification of clips from the Olympic performance.

However, if you were to go to the online petition last night, what you would find might just make you reconsider signing. At the top of the page was a banner that read: “This petition is under review by moderators who enforce our Community Guidelines. We have received flags from our users that the facts in this petition may be contested. You should consider researching this issue before signing.” And it seems that the moderators have done their job, as the petition has now been removed from the website completely.

This comes just hours after the AOC released a statement demanding that the petition be withdrawn, claiming that the petition and online movement surrounding it “amounts to bullying and harassment”.

So then, what is the truth? According to the AOC, just about nothing from the original petition. In fact, the story is practically boring:

In October of 2023, Raygun competed in Sydney against athletes from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea in the Oceania Breaking Championship. The competition was held by AUSBreaking under the guidance of DanceSport Australia and World DanceSport Federation (WDSF), none of which Raygun has any professional ties to. WDSF chose the panel of nine independent judges from around the world “specifically to provide fair, expert and transparent adjudication”. Notably, this does not include Raygun’s husband who, while he is indeed a coach, also has no ties to any of the organisations involved.

In fact, the championship’s real problem had more to do with the small turn-out of competitors. A Guardian article interviewing some Australian B-girls revealed an extremely short turn-around time from the announcement of the championship to the competition. Also revealed was the fact that prospective breakers had to be Australian citizens, had to be registered with all three organisations hosting the event, and had to have a valid passport.

Each of these factors barred some extremely talented breakers from even competing to qualify for the Olympics. And who knows, maybe one of them could even have brought home the gold.

But in the end, Raygun won the Championship. It’s as simple as that, no conspiracy needed.

So here’s to Raygun, the latest in a long line of Aussie sporting legends!

So… What’s Going On With Raygun?

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