Breakdancer Raygun defended by Australian Olympic chief

Australia's Chef de Mission Anna Meares has condemned critics of breakdancer Rachael Gunn, pointing out that she should be applauded for her courage, rather than pilloried for her performance at the Paris Games.

Gunn, known as 'Raygun', failed to score a point when breakdancing made its debut as an Olympic sport in Paris.

She has since been a target of criticism online and in some mainstream media, not only for her performance but also for her appearance.

[thenotic]

I’m sorry, no disrespect but how did she qualify? No kid is going to be encouraged by a 36 year old college professor who think creativity is all you need to complete in the highest level of sports like the Olympics.

[liamyoung]

Gave it a go?!?! It's the Olympics not school sports day. People are laughing because it was hilarious. Basically our version of Eric the Eel. Trust Aus officials/media to be overly sensitive get over yourselves it was funny

[Lesqueek]

This is kind of an embarrassment to the art of breakin. This is the first time in the Olympics and this was not amateur hour.

[chariennekhan]

The Olympics committee should have known better than to allow her to make a fool of herself knowing she had no skill...it is the Olympics...not a talent competition

[EL-xgyq]

The olympics level is not a place where "participation" medals should be given out. She is an insult to the many, many atheletes give up their livelihoods and in some cases, sacrifice their childhoods to train. No wonder the quality of just about everything here in Australia is dropping.

[markeezplz]

"How can we continue to encourage our kids to do that when we slam our athletes on a Global stage"

She wants all kids to think you can go to the Olympics while being very mediocre. You're telling me this was the best break dancer you could come up with in the past 4+ years?

[Saffa_]

This is a marketing gimmick. There’s no way this is real. There’s no reason for Australia to be making so much noise defending bad performance. This is to deflect after Tom Craig was jonesing for that powder in Paris. And that’s why a Chef de Mission would love a Raygun - she took one for the team ahead of 2032 😭 this is a virtue signalling master class

[scottswift]

She literally set break dancing and female break dancers back at least 30 years lol what are we doing here.

[Londongirl]

Relief for the cocaine buyer as someone is taking the spotlight off him.

[seadeep]

How in the world did she get into Olympics in the first place?😂😂😂😂

[valintime]

How the heck did she get into the Olympics in the first place? Lol