Paris 2024: AOC slams petition asking to ‘hold Raygun accountable’

The AOC has called out the online trolling of Olympic breakdancer Rachael Gunn and Chef de Mission Anna Meares over a petition asking the pair to be held accountable for her Paris selection.

Australia's Rachael Gunn (L), known as Raygun gestures next to US' Logan Edra, known as Logistx, during their battle as part of the Women's Breaking dance Round robin of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at La Concorde in Paris, on August 9, 2024. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP)

The AOC has labelled anonymous online trolling of Olympic breakdancer Rachael Gunn as ‘appalling’ and ‘defamatory’, demanding change.org immediately remove an online petition attacking ‘Raygun’.

The anonymous change.org petition titled ‘Hold Raygun Rachel Gunn & Anna Mears (sic) Accountable for Unethical Conduct Olympic Selection’ is addressed to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and went online on Monday.

It has more than 45,000 signatures as of Thursday afternoon.

A statement from the Olympic governing body described the petition as ‘vexatious, misleading and bullying.”

AOC CEO Matt Carroll says the petition is riddled with falsehoods and that Gunn’s qualification process was independent and transparent.

“The petition has stirred up public hatred without any factual basis. It’s appalling,” Mr Carroll said.

Carroll was particularly scathing on the link to Australian Chef de Mission and Olympic gold-medal champion Anna Meares.

“The Australian Team Chef de Mission played no role in the qualification events nor the nomination of athletes to the AOC Selection Committee, of which the Chef and I are members.

“It is disgraceful that these falsehoods concocted by an anonymous person can be published in this way. It amounts to bullying and harassment and is defamatory. We are demanding that it be removed from the site immediately.”

Carroll and the AOC were at pains to clarify speculation on the nature of the Oceania qualifying event that saw Gunn selected.

According to the AOC the qualifiers held in Sydney in October 2023 were held under Olympic qualification systems approved by World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) and the IOC. Further to that, the judging panel was selected by the WDSF and consisted of nine international judges flown to Australia to specifically provide independent adjudication.

What do you think of Raygun’s selection? Picture: AFP

There were no appeals to the result of the qualifying tournament won by Dr Gunn.

It also made clear that Dr Gunn holds no position with AUSBreaking, DanceSport Australia, nor has any involvement in funding decisions for the sport, dismissing the petition’s assertion that Gunn “set up her own governing body for breakdancing.”

“It’s important that the community understands the facts and that people do not form opinions based on malicious untruths and misinformation,” Carroll said.

The AOC also said that DanceSport Australia and its athletes received no Federal Government funding and that it provided high performance funding to DanceSport Australia for Breaking from its own financial resources.