Fact Check: Australian Breakdancer Raygun 'Rigged' Her Way Into Olympics?

Claim:

Australian breakdancer Rachael Gunn rigged Olympic selections by setting up her own governing body, running the Olympic qualifiers, and installing her husband as a coach for the national breakdancing team.

Rating:

False ( About this rating? )

In August 2024, rumors spread on social media about the qualifications of Rachael Gunn (also known as "Raygun"), an Australian breakdancer who competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Gunn's breakdancing — also known as breaking — came under fire at the Games as clips of her failed routine went viral on social media, with numerous users creating memes or mocking the dancer's moves.

According to some reports , Gunn scored zero points on all her rounds. One judge said in a news conference they used a "comparative judging system," while Gunn explained they had "comparison percentages" as scoring. The Olympics website noted Raygun received no votes from judges in all three of her events, and thus did not advance past the first round.

Numerous rumors flew alleging Gunn somehow "rigged" the Olympics-selection process to get in. Some of those alleged she and her husband were the "founders" of the Australian Breaking Association (ABA, also referred to as AUSBreaking) — the group responsible for developing breaking and hip hop in the region — that her husband was part of the selection committee and later coached the national team, and that Gunn denied funding to a group of talented breakdancers to attend the qualifiers.

One of the biggest sources of the rigging rumor was a Change.org petition that claimed corruption in the breaking selection process. Titled, "Hold Raygun Rachel Gunn & Anna Mears [head of the Australian Olympic mission] Accountable for Unethical Conduct Olympic Selection," it said:

Rachel Gunn, who set up her own governing body for breakdancing, has manipulated the selection process to her own advantage. Despite the clear talent and qualification of other outstanding female breakdancers like G Clef and Holy Molly, they were unfairly overlooked. The NT Youlong Boys, a group of incredibly talented and underprivileged youth from the Northern Territory, were denied crucial funding by Dr. Gunn to attend the qualifiers—a decision that directly impacted their chance to showcase their skills on a national stage.

Disturbingly, Dr. Gunn went on to win her own qualifier, defeating other phenomenal breakdancers, raising serious questions about the fairness and integrity of the process. If Dr. Gunn's husband is indeed the Australian coach and part of the selection panel, this represents a blatant conflict of interest that cannot go unchecked.

In all, we found the rumor to be false. Below, we address the veracity of each claim in the rumor.

Who's Behind Australian Breaking Association?

Gunn and her husband, Samuel Free , have no role in AUSBreaking. The current president is Lowe Napalan . Gunn and Free are not on the governing body, according to the website .

Breaking was included as a sport in the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, and after its success, was officially included in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Napalan founded AUSBreaking in 2019, according to Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald . By then, he was already a two-time Australian/Oceania Battle of the Year Champion.

Napalan registered the AUSBreaking as a charity and hired leading Australian breakers for the team as the country did not have an established body to nominate for the Olympics team. Per their registration documents , Gunn and Free were never part of the organization.

After the Olympics confirmed breaking would be part of the competition in 2020, AUSBreaking announced it would be holding competitions and introduced a national ranking system.

How Was Gunn Selected for the Olympics?

Gunn and Free were not connected to the selection process. In August 2022, the World Dance Sport Federation (WDSF) — the governing body for dance sports — announced the qualification timeline for breaking. On its schedule , the group noted the Oceania Championship as a recognized event for Australia's qualifiers.

Gunn was chosen at the Oceania Championship in October 2023. A statement from AUSBreaking condemned the later bullying of Raygun and shared how the selection process occurred:

The selection process for Australia's Breaking team heading to Paris was conducted over two days, and open to all interested participants in the Oceanic region. Adhering to World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) regulations, which align with International Olympic Committee (IOC) standards, the process aimed to ensure a fair and transparent outcome.

The Oceania Olympic selection event (The QMS 2023 WDSF Oceania Breaking Championships) in October 2023 brought together the top Breakers, both Bgirls and Bboys. A panel of 9 international adjudicators, a head judge and a chairperson who oversaw the competition, using the same judging system at the Paris Games and trained to uphold the highest standards of impartiality. These judges are all highly respected in their respective communities and in the international Breaking scene.

Ultimately, Rachael Gunn and Jeff Dunne emerged as the top performers in exactly the same process, securing their spots to represent Australia in Paris. Their selection was based solely on their performance in their battles on that day.

For the Oceania event, Raygun came first out of 15 women who competed in the qualifying event.

Whether she was skilled enough at the qualifying event was ultimately the judges' decision. The Sydney Morning Herald spoke to a number of breakers, some of whom said they weren't fans of the selection process but were supportive of Raygun. Some noted the event was not exclusive in any way, and was open to all dancers, but also that breaking as a sport is not well-funded by the Australian government, hence making it less accessible to more diverse communities. A relatively small pool of breakers participated in the qualifying event.

On Aug. 15, 2024, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) also released a statement debunking a number of claims in the Change.org petition — which ultimately was flagged for misinformation and taken down — including the claim that Gunn allegedly denied funding to another group of breakdancers:

• The Oceania Qualifying event held in Sydney in October 2023 was conducted under the Olympic qualification system determined by the international governing body,  World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) as approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
• The judging panel for the event was selected by the WDSF and consisted of nine independent international judges who were brought to Australia specifically to provide fair, expert and transparent adjudication.
• [...] Dr Rachael Gunn in winning the Oceania Breaking Championship in October 2023 was legitimately nominated by DanceSport Australia to the AOC for selection in the Australian Olympic Team.
• Dr Rachael Gunn holds no position with AUSBreaking or DanceSport Australia in any capacity. She is simply an athlete who competed in the qualifying event which she won. There were no appeals from any athlete.
• Dr Gunn has no responsibility for any funding decisions in her sport.
• [...] Australian Olympic Team Chef de Mission Anna Meares was not involved in the qualifying event or nomination of athletes.
• DanceSport Australia and the athletes received no Federal Government Funding.
• The AOC provided high performance funding to DanceSport Australia for Breaking, from its own financial resources.
• The Australian Olympic Committee fully funded the Australian Olympic Team's campaign to Paris.

What is Gunn's Husband's Role?

Gunn and Free were not on the judging panel. Their names are not on the list of officials and judges published on the WDSF for the Oceania Championships. None of the judges on the 10-person panel was even Australian.

The AOC also stated that Free was not an official coach: "Mr Samuel Free is a coach who holds no position with AUSBreaking or DanceSport Australia in any capacity and was not a judge at the qualifying event."

Free did, however, coach Gunn at the Olympics, according to a Sydney Morning Herald profile of the couple from July 2023. Gunn said in the interview:

Qualifying for the Olympics has changed our lives; it's this amazing platform for us to show what we do. Sammy probably would've liked to have been competing, too, but we had a limited number of people in Australia with the expertise needed to coach. He may not be performing, but his mark will be in all my moves.

Sometimes, he'll give me feedback and I'll get defensive, but I've learnt to dig deep: "What's really happening here?" And, usually, it's that [I'm scared that] he thinks I'm s***. So I'll say, "Just tell me you think I'm whack" and we end up laughing because he doesn't think that.

Free did not coach the national team — he only coached his wife . Liam Masters coached Dunne, the other Australian who competed in the men's category. In a video on Instagram , Masters defended Gunn and praised Dunne, who he said was under a lot of pressure after the international scrutiny on the Australian team due to Gunn's performance.

Gunn did release a statement on Instagram, and referred people to the AOC and AUSBreaking Instagram page statements defending her:

I really appreciate the positivity, and I'm glad I was able to bring some joy into your lives. That's what I hoped. I didn't realize that that would also open the door to so much hate, which has, frankly, been pretty devastating.

I went out there, and I had fun. I did take it very seriously. I worked my butt off preparing for the Olympics, and I gave my all. Truly. I am honored to be a part of the Australian Olympic team.

[...]

Bit of a fun fact for you. There are actually no points in breaking. If you want to see how the judges thought I compared to my opponents, you can actually see the comparison percentages across the five criteria on Olympics com. All the results are there.

Given that all of the claims have been denied and debunked by the official Olympic bodies and the selection teams involved in the process, we rate the above rumor as "False."

Sources:

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