You’ve seen the clips. The kangaroo hop. The sprinkler. The teal tracksuit that launched a thousand memes and launched Rachael Gunn—known to the world as Raygun—into a stratosphere of fame she probably never wanted. When the Australia Olympic break dancer stepped onto the floor at the Paris 2024 Games, the internet didn't just notice; it imploded.
Honestly, it was a moment that defined the 2024 Olympics for a lot of people, and not necessarily for the right reasons. People were confused. They were angry. They were, mostly, making a lot of jokes. But behind the 0-18 scoreline and the viral TikToks, there is a much weirder, more complex story about how a 36-year-old university lecturer ended up representing a continent in a sport born on the streets of the Bronx.
The Reality of the Zero-Point Score
Let’s clear something up right away: that 0 score everyone talks about? It doesn’t mean she did "nothing." In Olympic breaking, the judging is comparative. It’s not like gymnastics where you start with a 10 and lose points for wobbles. You’re judged against your opponent in a head-to-head battle.
Raygun went up against absolute powerhouses: Logistx from the US, Syssy from France, and Nicka from Lithuania. These are athletes in their teens and early twenties who live and breathe high-power transitions and gravity-defying power moves.
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When the judges looked at the two dancers side-by-side, they gave every round to the other person. That’s how you get a zero. It's harsh. It looks terrible on a spreadsheet. But according to the head judge, Martin Gilian (MGbility), Raygun wasn’t "bad"—she was just trying to be creative in a field of athletes who were focused on pure athleticism. She knew she couldn't out-spin a 21-year-old. So, she did a kangaroo hop.
Who is Rachael Gunn, Really?
Rachael Gunn isn't just some person who wandered off the street and into an Olympic stadium. She’s actually Dr. Rachael Gunn. She has a PhD in Cultural Studies from Macquarie University in Sydney. Her thesis? It was literally about the intersection of gender and the Sydney breaking scene.
Basically, she’s an academic who studied the very thing she was doing.
She wasn't some "industry plant" or a fraud who gamed the system. She had been competing in the Australian scene for years. She was the top-ranked B-girl in Australia in 2020 and 2021. She represented the country at World Championships in Paris, Seoul, and Leuven.
So, how did she qualify? She won the 2023 Oceania Breaking Championships. She beat the other top Australian B-girls fair and square in a tournament judged by nine independent international judges. There were plenty of conspiracy theories floating around that her husband (who is also her coach) rigged the selection. That was debunked pretty quickly by the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC). The truth is just less scandalous: she was the best of what Australia had at that specific qualifying event.
The Fallout and the "World Number One" Irony
The weeks after the Olympics were a fever dream for Raygun. She was satirized on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. She was hounded by paparazzi. For a while, she was the most famous Australian on the planet.
Then, in September 2024, something truly bizarre happened. The World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) released their official rankings, and Rachael Gunn was ranked Number One in the World.
People lost their minds. Again.
But like most things in this saga, there was a boring technical explanation. The WDSF rankings are based on points from specific events over the last 12 months. Because the Olympics itself didn't award ranking points, and because points from other major events had expired, Gunn’s win at the Oceania Championships suddenly shot her to the top of the list. It was a statistical quirk, but it added more fuel to the fire for people who felt she was making a mockery of the sport.
Why the Breaking Community Was Torn
If you talk to people in the actual hip-hop and breaking community in Australia, they're often pretty conflicted. On one hand, Raygun is their friend. She’s a long-time member of the scene.
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On the other hand, many B-girls were devastated. They felt that her performance—which leaned heavily into "creative" and "interpretive" movements rather than the foundational elements of breaking—made the sport look like a joke. They worried about future funding. They worried about being taken seriously. Leah Clark, a veteran B-girl from Brisbane, mentioned in interviews that local dancers were in tears over the mockery. It wasn’t just about Raygun; it was about the legacy of a culture they had spent decades building.
The End of the Road: Retirement
By November 2024, the pressure became too much. Gunn announced her retirement from competitive breaking.
She told a Sydney radio station that the level of scrutiny was just too high. She said the experience of competing had been "upsetting" and that she didn't want to go to a battle only to have people filming her just to post it online for more ridicule. She’s still dancing, but mostly in her living room or at small community "jams" where there are no cameras and no judges.
It's a bit of a sad ending for someone who clearly loved the dance. She went from being a respected academic and local competitor to a global punchline in the span of 48 hours.
What We Can Learn From the Raygun Phenomenon
The story of the Australia Olympic break dancer is a weird case study in what happens when a niche subculture meets the massive, unyielding machinery of the modern Olympics. Breaking won't be in the 2028 Los Angeles Games—that decision was actually made before Paris even started—so Raygun might end up being one of the most memorable figures in the sport's very short Olympic history.
If you’re looking for the "why" behind it all, here are the takeaways:
- Niche systems can produce unexpected results: The qualification process for the Olympics is rigorous, but it relies on who shows up on the day. In Australia, the pool of competitive B-girls was small enough that a creative, academic approach could—and did—win.
- Originality vs. Foundations: In breaking, you’re supposed to have "flavour" and be original. Raygun took that to the extreme. The lesson for any performer is that originality only works if it's built on a foundation that the audience (and the judges) can recognize.
- The Internet is a beast: Once a narrative starts, facts don't matter much. The conspiracy theories about her selection were false, but they traveled ten times faster than the AOC’s boring press releases.
Rachael Gunn’s journey is a reminder that "giving it a go" on the world stage is a double-edged sword. You might inspire people to be themselves, or you might become a meme that follows you for the rest of your life.
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For those looking to understand the technical side of what happened, you can still find the judge's breakdown on the official Olympics website. It shows exactly where she fell behind in the five criteria: technique, vocabulary, execution, musicality, and originality. Ironically, she actually scored higher in "originality" than some might expect—it just wasn't enough to save the score.
Moving forward, the Australian breaking scene is trying to rebuild its image. There are incredibly talented dancers in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane who are doing the "power moves" and high-level technical breaking the world expected to see. If you want to support the sport, look for local jams in your city. That's where the real culture lives, far away from the Olympic spotlights and the viral tweets.