Breaking at the Olympics gets off to an ... interesting ... start with Australia's Raygun (2024)

Every Olympic cycle always brings a few new events. In Paris, one of those disciplines is “breaking” — which you might know as breakdancing. The response, on social media, at least, might not be what organizers wanted.

Everyone on their couch is always an expert at the Olympics. We all know why this surfing run is better than that surfing run, even though we’ve never been in the ocean. But the main focus of the Internet on Friday, with the debut of the B-Girls category (which was a hard phrase in itself to type), was a dancer known as Raygun, or Rachael Gunn from Australia.

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At 36, the university professor has a PhD in Cultural Studies from Macquarie University and focuses her research on the culture of hip hop, according to CNBC.

“In 2023, many of my students didn’t believe me when I told them I was training to qualify for the Olympics, and were shocked when they checked Google and saw that I qualified,” she told the news organization.

However, as expected in These Times, she quickly became a meme because of a few of her dance moves, including a kangaroo-inspired situation. Her fellow Olympians were much younger, which also attracted a lot of attention. Even The New York Times noticed.

“She performed a move that looked something like swimming and another that could best be described as duckwalking,” the newspaper wrote. “The high-speed back and head spins that other breakers would demonstrate were mostly absent.”

The judges voted unanimously for Raygun’s opponent, known as Logistx, who won 18-0.

“All my moves are original. Creativity is really important to me. I go out there and I show my artistry,” Raygun said to reporters after the competition.

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“Sometimes it speaks to the judges, and sometimes it doesn’t. I do my thing, and it represents art. That is what it is about.”

Interestingly enough, breaking will not be at the next Olympics in 2028. The five “new” sports that will show up in Los Angeles are squash, cricket, flag football, softball/baseball and lacrosse. Breaking was left behind, along with karate, which makes for a bit of a strange situation as the event is new in Paris, but will need to be approved for Brisbane 2032. So, enjoy Olympic breaking while you can.

Breaking was initially added to the Olympics after positive reaction to the sport at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games, according to Inside the Games, and the hope was to encourage the next generation to relate to the Olympics with a modern inclusion.

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