JENI O’DOWD: Rachael ‘Raygun’ Gunn’s effort of simply ‘having a go’ isn’t good enough on Olympic stage

In a complicated world where technology rules supreme, the essence of the Olympics remains strikingly simple: it’s about who can run or swim the fastest, jump the highest, or throw the farthest.

This purity of competition, where athletes push their limits under intense pressure, is what makes the Games so captivating.

Ahead of the Paris Games, I highlighted a few athletes to watch: Jessica Hull in middle-distance running, who delivered a stunning silver in the 1500m; Matt Denny in discus, who secured a bronze; and Claudia Hollingsworth, a promising 19-year-old who made a strong showing in the 800m heats during her Olympic debut.

I also wrote this: “However, if you’re in the mood for something a bit different, don’t miss the debut of breaking (breakdancing) in Paris. Young competitors Jeff Dunne, a 15-year-old from Casuarina, and Rachael Gunn from Hornsby will be showcasing their skills.”

I offer my sincere apologies to anyone who took that advice. Rachael Gunn’s (“Raygun”) performance was, unfortunately, the most cringe-worthy thing I have ever seen. And as you know, I am not alone in that opinion; her performance has received widespread criticism worldwide.

Breaking is a dance style that developed in New York in the 1970s. It’s known for acrobatic spins, flips, and kicks and is danced to percussion-heavy beats of funk and hip-hop.

Olympic judges scored competitors using the Trivium judging system, which scores breakers on creativity, personality, technique, variety, performativity, and musicality. Rachael Gunn scored zero points. Zero.

It almost seemed as if her truly appalling performance was deliberately staged—perhaps to boost her profile for any reality TV opportunities or to promote her academic studies?

Most athletes spend their lives training to compete in the Olympics, but Rachael, a middle-aged academic, looked like she had dreamt up her moves in her living room overnight.

But it’s the reaction to the reaction which shows how truly woke Australia has become.

Australia’s chef de mission in Paris, Anna Meares, a six-time Olympic medalist, said the criticism was typical of misogynistic abuse that female athletes endure, and Gunn should be applauded, not pilloried.

Wrong. The 36-year-old was criticised for thinking breaking involved hopping like a kangaroo and rolling around the floor like a dog on freshly mown grass. It had nothing at all to do with her being female. It had everything to do with her lack of talent, reflected in her score.

Meares continued: “She is the best breakdancer female that we have for Australia.”

Well, probably. To get to the Olympics for breaking, unlike the thousands of athletes who spend hours a day, every day, every week, for years to compete, she competed against 15 women — yes, 15 — at the first-ever World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) Oceania Breaking Championships at Sydney Town Hall in 2023.

This is how she got to perform in front of the world at the Paris Olympics.

It’s like sending a swimmer who doggy paddles; a skateboarder who, unable to perform the required tricks, simply rides down the half-pipe sitting on their board, or a runner who jogs rather than sprint as they are not fit.

It’s just laughable. Athletes must meet a minimum time or standard to compete in most sports. Astonishingly, this did not apply to the new sport of breaking.

I could not even begin to count the number of competitions in NSW, Australia, and worldwide that Jessica Hull had to do to reach Olympic standards. The fact that she started in Little Athletics in Albion Park after enjoying running in the Year 2 cross country says it all.

Our swimmers train many times a day, often six to seven days a week, both in the pool and land-based training, which includes strength, flexibility and conditioning workouts. That’s how they become the best in the world.

But Australian officials decided, for whatever bizarre reason, that it was okay for our Olympic representative to be chosen after a competition comprising just 37 men and 15 women.

The Project’s Sarah Harris and panellist Rachel Corbett said the backlash against Gunn was disappointing, commending her for having “a crack.”

“All anybody is talking about is Raygun, and can I just say right now, I am so rooting for this woman,” Corbett said on Sunday night’s program.

“’Like, you think she was not qualified to be there. She didn’t get pulled in off the street — she had to win a championship to get there.”

Well, she almost got pulled off the street. It was one competition against 15 other people, which qualified her to go to Paris.

Even Prime Minister Anthony Albanese decided to weigh in, saying Rachael had a crack “good on her, and a big shout out to her.”

“That is in the Australian tradition of people having a go. She’s had a go representing our country, and that’s a good thing.”

These two sentences show how out of touch the Prime Minister is. Rachael was not qualified to compete against the world’s best, and her performance exposed that.

Her participation did nothing to uphold genuine Australian tradition or pride. In fact, it did the opposite. And the Olympics is not the arena for people “to have a go.”

Let’s tell it how it is. In a world where true excellence in sports demands relentless dedication and rigorous standards, the inclusion of Gunn, based on a minimal qualification, was wrong.

It undermined the dedication of every other Australian athlete who competed at the Games.

It undermined the art of breaking itself, with a strong history steeped deeply in working-class African-American, Latino and Caribbean culture. Her performance was disrespectful to this cultural background and the worldwide breaking community.

Gunn starkly undermined the integrity of Australia’s performance at the Games and diluted the essence of genuine competitive achievement.

And that’s the unvarnished truth, no matter how much the woke community want to hide it.