‘Travesty’: How the Olympics’ breaking farce was allowed to happen
A look back at breaking’s murky entry into the Olympics - and Australia’s qualification process - explains how Paris ended up in this mess.
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Rachael “Raygun” Gunn was set up to fail.
The steps leading up to her “lamb to the slaughter” moment show just what a farce the whole Olympics breaking episode has been - from start to finish.
Gunn’s moves on breaking’s first ever day as an Olympic sport have divided the world with some adoring her self-deprecating style — while others deem her performance was not worthy to be included in the world’s most elite sporting competition.
The 36-year-old Macquarie University lecturer has smiled in the face of one of the most brutal social media backlashes of the entire Games.
The “B-Girl” said she came to Paris wanting to leave a mark - and she has certainly done that.
But there’s a murkiness to why she was there in the first place.
Breaking will not be returning for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles - and Brisbane Olympic officials will get the ultimate say on whether the sport will be resuscitated in eight years’ time.
Judging on the largely scathing reviews of Gunn’s performance, the sport’s hopes of ever returning to the Olympics are the same as the Aussie’s score after three “battles” at the La Concorde Urban Park. Zero.
It is obvious, however, that Gunn’s deliberately daggy lawn bowls ensemble, kangaroo hops and sprinkler moves are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to explaining how this trainwreck charged to its doom.
Breaking’s grizzly rise to international artform
Having five years to prepare for the sport’s inclusion in the Games — after it was approved for the Paris program by the IOC in 2019 — was not enough.
The sport was at war with itself - and remains so.
Originating in the USA in the 1970s, breaking resonated with underprivileged and under-represented youths, dancing in the face of the mainstream music scene - think ABBA, think Bee Gees.
The first international “battle” recognised by the IOC was in 1997 - but the sport’s breakthrough moment came when it was admitted to the Youth Olympics in 2018.
The problem was, it blindsided the breaking community.
A furore erupted after what some saw as an underhanded plot by the World DanceSport Federation to join the Olympic program.
The WDSF initially wanted to get ballroom dancing in the Games, but knew it was seen as too dated to secure the audience Olympic officials were desperate to attain - GenZ.
So without any official global organisation to challenge them, the WDSF pivoted to breaking. And suddenly the sport was in the Olympics.
Breaking betrayal leads to ‘travesty’
Serouj “Midus” Aprahamian, assistant professor of dance at the University of Illinois and one of the leading voices against breaking’s inclusion at the Olympics, summed up the controversy when writing a petition against the WDSF ahead of the 2018 Youth Olympics in Argentina.
“The WDSF is a competitive ballroom dance organisation. It has absolutely no connection or credibility with any legitimate entity in the worldwide breaking community,” he wrote.
“That the IOC has allowed these impostors to oversee breaking at the Youth Olympics is a travesty and a scandal.
“Would the IOC allow the Badminton World Federation to oversee baseball? Would it allow the Federation for Equestrian Sports to oversee auto-racing? Why would the Olympics accept such a polar opposite and illegitimate entity as the WDSF to have anything to do with breaking?
“This action is immoral, illogical, and insulting to the hundreds of thousands of B-boys and B-girls worldwide who live and breathe this culture.”
The IOC and Paris 2024 Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games didn’t seem to mind. They were just keen to get the sport in because breaking is popular in France.
But the lack of support - even anger - from sections of the breaking community may explain the overall quality of the participants in Paris.
This brings us back to Gunn.
Staggering farce shows Raygun should have stayed home
The sport in Australia was just as disorganised when its big moment came in 2019 and inclusion in the Olympics was secured.
Australia had no recognised national federation so, as reported by the SMH, Gunn took up the challenge.
“It was like, ‘Well this is in [the Olympics] now’,” she said.
“So we’d better make sure that we’re not being misrepresented. People were really worried about what happened in the ’80s, where the narrative kind of got carried away from what breaking was, and a lot of the culture and the history was lost.
“We needed to make sure that there was a seat at the table for us, even though it’s not something that we planned or necessarily dreamed of.”
It’s obvious how unplanned it all was based on how Gunn earned her spot on the Australian team and had a spot on the Aussie barge that floated down the river Seine during the Opening Ceremony.
In October, 2023, the inaugural WDSF Oceania Breaking Championships were held at Sydney Town Hall. Thirty-seven B-Boys and 15 B-Girls from the Pacific region competed for the incredible prize of a chance to be an Olympian. The event was broadcast around the world live on the Olympic Channel.
Sixteen-year-old Jeff “J-Attack” Dunne won the B-Boys’ competition, while Raygun took gold in the B-Girls’ category.
After missing out on top spot, three B-Boys and three B-Girls turned to the Olympic Qualifier Series as an alternate route to Paris.
Australia’s female representitives - “G-Clef”, “Hannah” and “Holy Molly” - finished 37th, 38th and 40th in a 40-woman field.
While mainstream Australia had yet to turn its eye to the new event, we were being exposed as international also-rans.
It was a warning for what we could expect when Gunn trotted out in Paris - and it appears the Aussie herself knew she had no chance of competing, even if Australian chef de mission Anna Meares insists she “is the best breakdancer female that we have for Australia”.
“I was never going to beat these girls on what they do best, the dynamic and the power moves,” Gunn said after her performance went viral.
“So I wanted to move differently, be artistic and creative because how many chances do you get in a lifetime to do that on an international stage?
“I was always the underdog and wanted to make my mark in a different way.”
As for breaking’s future, the WDSF is determined to see it back for Brisbane.
“Our campaign to be added to Brisbane 2032 has already begun,” president Shawn Tay said late last year.
“Initial reactions from all participants to the breaking presentations, including Brisbane officials at the Australian Olympic Committee’s one year to go to Paris 2024 celebrations, have been highly optimistic about our chances of being added to these Games.”
We’ll see if Paris has changed that.
Originally published as ‘Travesty’: How the Olympics’ breaking farce was allowed to happen
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