The judges just didn’t get her, apparently.
Raygun, the Australian breakdancer whose real name is Rachael Gunn, managed to score zero points while losing three straight 18-0 matches during the breaking competition at the 2024 Olympics in Paris after a series of strange routines, which included a “kangaroo dance.”
But her father-in-law Andrew Free, the dad of Gunn’s husband and coach, Samuel, hit out at the judges for how they assessed Gunn’s performance.
“It was a pretty stacked competition and the judges were clearly looking for a certain style of breaking which is not Rachael’s,” Free wrote on Facebook, according to multiple reports.
“Although they are supposed to mark 5 different aspects with each having the same weighting, in my obviously biased opinion they did not reward originality and musicality so she was up against it.
“The main thing is she represented Australia and breaking at the Olympics with courage and dignity.
“It comes naturally for some of them, not so much for Rachael. It is part of the culture.”
The panel of nine judges scored breakers based on five criteria: technique, vocabulary, execution, musicality and originality.
While Raygun has been widely mocked, the head judge Martin Gilian, also known as MGbility, offered support for Raygun despite the zero-point performance.
“Breaking is all about originality and bringing something new to the table and representing your country or region,” Gilian said at a press conference Sunday. “This is exactly what Raygun was doing. She got inspired by her surroundings, which in this case, for example, was a kangaroo.”
The 36-year-old received a hero’s welcome upon her return to Australia and performed a brief dance for a gathered crowd.
She’s also garnered praise from Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese.
“(It’s an) Australian tradition of people having a go. She’s had a go representing our country and that’s a good thing,” he said.
One fellow academic professor, though, questioned whether Raygun truly was “having a go.”
“Getting zero points on purpose in three rounds for an academic study subsidized by the taxpayer both at a university and Olympic level isn’t funny and isn’t ‘having a go’,” Professor Megan Davis, the Pro Vice-Chancellor Society at UNSW Sydney, posted on social media. “(It’s) disrespectful to other competitors. I’m glad most Aussies aren’t buying the Kool-Aid.”
