Raygun: heir to Eddie the Eagle?

Rachel Gunn competing in Breakdancing at the Paris 2024 Olympics, France.

Gunn, known in the sport as B-Girl Raygun, received a score of zero in her dance battles

(Image credit: Getty Images_DeFodi Images)

published 24 August 2024

In the wake of the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Australian breakdancer Rachael Gunn has become "one of its highest-profile competitors", said Palmer Haasch in Business Insider. It's not because of a record or a gold medal. Gunn, 36, known in the sport as B-Girl Raygun, received a score of zero in her dance battles against three opponents, and did not progress past the first round. But her unique routine, in which, dressed in a green and gold Australia tracksuit, she thrashed her arms around, kangaroo-hopped, and slithered across the floor like a snake, led to an onslaught of ridicule, and a flood of parodies. She's now "a worldwide meme".

An Olympic loser

If you haven't already seen Raygun's routine, it's "joyous", said Sarah Ditum in The Times. "The weird, toddler-esque flopping and flailing. The kangaroo hops (to remind you she is Australian). The look of intense and solemn concentration as she did all this." Disappointingly, she has not embraced her "new-found fame". Raygun took to Instagram to say that the "hate" that has been aimed at her since has been "devastating", and to peevishly corrected her detractors on points of detail: she didn't technically receive zero points, she got zero votes from the panel of nine judges. But then I suspect Gunn is a little "po-faced" all round. She is a lecturer in media studies at Macquarie University and her papers include "Re-articulating gender norms through breakdancing".

I feel for her, said Graham Watts in The Spectator. As she put it, she worked her "butt off" to get to the Olympics, and now she's a global laughing stock. Not only that, but she has been blamed for getting breakdancing chucked out of the Olympics (a decision made months ago), and even accused of cheating to qualify. As for the routine: well, she tried to win on originality and humour against younger and more athletic opponents, and it didn't work. Don't worry too much about her, said Dee Madigan in The Guardian. The world loves an Olympic loser. Remember Eric the Eel's disastrous 100m swim at the Sydney Games? "He's now the official coach of Equatorial Guinea." Eddie the Eagle? He "laughed all the way to the bank". For Raygun, I foresee a lucrative future in advertising and reality TV.