The breaker referred to as Raygun did terribly on the Olympics, dropping all three of her head-to-head battles, every by scores of 18-0. Her uncommon routines additionally made her an surprising face of the Paris Video games and earned her mockery worldwide.
However she did obtain one accolade this week. By some means, improbably, B-girl Raygun — sure, the identical Raygun who hopped like a kangaroo in her Olympic routines — is now the No. 1 ranked girls’s breaker on the earth.
Raygun is the nom de break of Dr. Rachael Gunn, a 37-year-old professor from Australia. Whereas different Olympic breakers spun dazzlingly on their heads and backs on this yr’s Video games, Raygun thrashed about on her facet, reached for her toes, and hopped round in a salute to the kangaroos of her native nation. Followers world wide, many being uncovered to breaking competitors for the primary time as the game made its Olympic debut, had been baffled, amused, and in some circumstances outraged.
Raygun’s whole rating of 0 factors put her in final place among the many 16 breakers in the primary Olympic competitors.
So, within the newest world rankings, how may Raygun be within the No. 1 spot? After receiving a barrage of questions, the World DanceSport Federation, which oversees the game internationally, launched an announcement Tuesday explaining the seeming incongruity.
The rating is predicated on occasions over the previous yr, the federation defined. Throughout that point, nearly all of breakers had been centered on qualifying for the Olympics.
However as a result of they’ve restricted fields with a small variety of rivals, Olympic qualifying occasions and the Olympics themselves don’t depend towards the world rankings. Subsequently, Raygun’s low-scoring efficiency on the Video games didn’t damage her rating in any respect.
Additional complicating the rankings, there have been hardly any occasions within the final 52 weeks that weren’t Olympic qualifiers. The federation stated that no official breaking occasions had been held in 2024 earlier than the Olympics, to permit “athletes to focus solely on the final a part of their Olympic qualification with out the added stress of further rating occasions.”
For Raygun, her solely ranked competitors in that point interval was the Oceania Continental Championships in Sydney in October 2023. She gained that occasion, which was hardly of worldwide significance. Of the highest 15 finishers, 13 had been from Australia and two from New Zealand. It was not a powerful area: Raygun, the winner, had completed sixty fourth on the world championships the month prior.
(Actually, the Oceania occasion itself triggered a stir after Raygun’s efficiency on the Olympics. The Australian federation launched an announcement after the Video games saying to reply to hypothesis about her win at that occasion: “Opposite to circulating misinformation, Dr. Gunn’s husband, Raygun’s coach, was not a member of the choice panel or judging committee. This may have constituted a battle of curiosity.”)
Raygun received 1,000 factors on the earth rankings for that win. Riko Tsuhako of Japan additionally had 1,000 factors, from a victory in a World Sequence occasion with a stronger area of rivals from all around the world. However the rating guidelines state that continental championships take priority over World Sequence occasions. Thus, Raygun gained the tiebreaker and received the No. 1 spot.
Dr. Gunn is a lecturer at Macquarie College in Sydney, the place her analysis pursuits embrace “breaking, avenue dance, and hip-hop tradition,” and the “politics of gender and gender efficiency.” After the Olympics, she obtained a deluge of criticism, together with her dancing model and even her uniform — inexperienced monitor pants and a polo shirt — being mocked.
“I’m glad I used to be in a position to deliver some pleasure into your lives,” she stated in a video on social media. “I didn’t notice that might additionally open the door to a lot hate, which has frankly been fairly devastating.”
Raygun gave the impression to be bouncing again from the hate, posting photographs of herself smiling and laughing with Richard Branson and Boy George.
Raygun’s Oceania victory will drop out of the rankings subsequent month when it turn out to be a yr outdated, and she’s going to tumble method down the charts. However for now, Raygun, inexperienced monitor pants, kangaroo hops and all, is wanting down from the No. 1 spot at each different breaker on the earth.
