Yahoo Lifestyle Here's How The Viral Breakdancer Named Raygun Responded To The "Devastating" Online Criticism, Misinformation, And Allegations
Rachel "Raygun" Gunn became a viral sensation at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The 36-year-old Australian college professor and competitive breaker took over the internet with her controversial debut at the 2024 Olympics.
According to CNN Sports, "she is a lecturer at Sydney's Macquarie University. Her research interests include breaking, street dance, and hip-hop culture, while her PhD thesis focused on the intersection of gender and Sydney's breaking culture."
Although she lost all three rounds of her competitions, the internet became obsessed with B-girl Raygun.
Her original breakdance moves flooded timelines with videos, memes, jokes, and, unfortunately, some harsh criticism. Rachel recently thanked her supporters and addressed the backlash.
In an Instagram video on Aug. 15, Rachel said, "I just want to start by thanking all the people who have supported me."
"I really appreciate the positivity and I'm glad I was able to bring some joy into your lives. That's what I hoped."
"I didn't realize that that would also open the door to so much hate, which has frankly been pretty devastating," she said. "While I went out there and I had fun, I did take it very seriously. I worked my butt off, preparing for the Olympics and I gave my all truly. I'm honored to have been a part of the Australian Olympic Team and to be part of breaking's Olympic debut."
"What the other athletes have achieved has just been phenomenal," she said.
"In regards to the allegations and misinformation floating around, I would like everyone to please refer to the recent statement made by the [International Olympic Committee], as well as the posts on the AUSBreaking Instagram page as well as the [World DanceSport Federation] Breaking for Gold page."
"A bit of a fun fact for you. There are actually no points in breaking. If you want to see how the judges thought I compared to my opponents, you can actually see the comparison percentages across the five criteria on Olympics.com. The results are there."
According to Olympics.com, the breaking judging is scored on six criteria: creativity, personality, technique, variety, performativity, and musicality.
"Each parameter has different weightage in a battle, with technique, performativity and creativity constituting 60 per cent of the total score while variety, musicality and personality make up the remaining 40 per cent," the site says.
As for how the scoring system worked at the Olympics, the site noted, "Each round is judged by nine judges against five criteria. The judging system produces a vote for each judge for each round in favour of one of the athletes (red or blue), with a percentage figure indicating the strength of their vote in favour of red or blue across all five criteria."
Based on the overall results from the judges, Raygun did not win the judges' favor in any of the three B-Girls Round Robin Battles in which she competed.
According to CNN, chief Olympic breaking judge Martin Gilian defended Rachel's debut despite her not winning the judges' favor at the Olympics. "It's all about originality, and it's all about bringing something new to the table and representing your country or region," he said. "This is exactly what Raygun was doing, she got inspired by her surroundings, which in this case, for example, was a kangaroo."
"She created some original moves, which could be maybe funny or entertaining for others, but for us, she basically represented breaking and hip hop," Martin continued. "She was trying to be original and bring something new to the table. From our perspective, that was nothing really shocking."
