Australian breakdancer Rachael Gunn, also known as B-Girl Raygun, has arguably reached Margot Robbie levels of Aussie fame over the past couple of weeks thanks to her performance in the Olympics Breaking competition in Paris becoming the single most meme-ed moment of the global summer competition.
Raygun’s viral zero-point attempt sadly was not enough to take her past the first round, but it sure blasted her name onto the podium of the internet’s most-talked-about Olympians. Among her most famous moves was a kangaroo hop inspired by her nation’s second most beloved animal (we got you, koalas), and a scissor-like motion joining her arms and legs as she rolled around on the floor.
“So you’re saying after a bottle of wine I could be an Olympian,” one person mused on TikTok. “The only time I’ve said ‘I can do that’ while watching the Olympics and was kind of correct,” another commented while attempting to recreate the infamous sequence.
The viral moment was even immortalized via a The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon sketch with Rachel Dratch impersonating the Olympian.
Safe to say, it wasn’t the most impressive display of athleticism at the 2024 Olympics, and many lamented that the B-Girl’s routine had become the most recognizable instance of a sport that was just getting its start on the world’s biggest stage. It’s been confirmed that it will not be on the roster for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
The ridicule, however, reached a boiling point when Gunn was accused of scamming her way into the Olympics by a Change.org petition that claimed the breakdancer had “manipulated the selection process to her own advantage” and had benefitted from her husband Samuel Free being a judge in the 2023 Oceania Breaking Championships which resulted in her qualifying for Paris. The latter accusation appears to be categorically false according to the World Dance Sport Federation website, which doesn’t list Free among the officials for the competition.
While we understand why many Australians could feel embarrassed by Raygun’s display in Paris and cheated that she occupied a spot that could have gone to someone more qualified, the 53 medals the nation won elsewhere and Margot Robbie’s entire existence should be more than enough consolation.
Published: Aug 14, 2024 07:03 am