After her failed Olympic debut, Raygun is the #1 breakdancer in the world – National

Despite her failure at the 2024 Olympics (and her near-total internet destruction), it’s Australian breakdancer B-Girl Raygun who is having the last laugh after being named the best female breakdancer in the world.

Raygun, a 37-year-old academic whose real name is Rachel Gunn, was named number one in the women’s rankings by the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF), the umbrella organization for breakdancing and other dance sports.

She just missed out on finishing last at the Olympics (someone else was disqualified), but she failed to score a single point in her Olympic bouts against competitors from France, Lithuania and the US, losing each bout 18-0.

However, she immediately shot to first place in the WDSF rankings thanks to the 1,000 points she scored during her Olympic qualifying event, the WDSF Oceania Championship.

Meanwhile, the three women who won a medal in Paris are missing from the WDSF top 10. Japan’s Ami, Lithuania’s Nicka and China’s 671 won gold, silver and bronze respectively.

In a statement on Tuesday, the WDSF clarified that its rankings are updated based on each athlete’s four best performances over the past 12 months. Points earned in these competitions remain valid for one year from the date of the event.

They also confirmed that the Olympic qualifying events in Budapest and Shanghai, and the Games in Paris, did not contribute to the scores that determined the rankings. And they said that several events last year, where athletes can normally earn points, were not held to give dancers a chance to prepare for Paris.

“In line with the Olympic qualification system, no ranking events were intentionally held between 31 December 2023 and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. This strategic planning allowed athletes to focus solely on the final part of their Olympic qualification without the added pressure of additional ranking events.

“By the end of the Olympic Games, many of the competition results included in the rankings had expired, leading to the current situation where many athletes have only one competition result that contributes to their ranking.”

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To break it down even further, most of the other events have points expired and there is a lack of points being collected because of the Olympics. Since most dancers currently only have points from one event, and Raygun won one of the last non-Olympic events, she was named to the top spot.

There’s a good chance Raygun won’t be on top of the podium for long, though. The WDSF rankings will change next month when some points are dropped and another breaking event is held in October — the Breaking for Gold World Series.

Yet many people are still up in arms about Raygun’s ranking, following her acclaimed Olympic routine that saw her hop around like a kangaroo, twist her body into awkward positions on the platform and perform backward rolls.

On August 15, following the backlash and ridicule following her performance in Paris, Gunn spoke of the world’s “pretty devastating” reaction.

“Hi everyone, Raygun here. I want to start by saying thank you to all the people who have supported me,” she said in an Instagram post. “I really appreciate the positivity and I’m glad I was able to bring some joy into your lives. That’s what I was hoping for.”

“I didn’t realize that it would also open the door to so much hate, which has honestly been pretty devastating,” Gunn continued. “Even though I went out there and had fun, I took it very seriously. I worked my butt off, prepared for the Olympics, and I gave it my all. I feel honored to be part of the Australian Olympic team and to be part of breaking’s Olympic debut.”

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Australian breakdancer ‘Raygun’ breaks silence after criticism of Olympic performance

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