Olympic judge defends Australian break dancer's ridiculed routine

Australia's Rachael Gunn, who performs under the name B-girl Raygun, was the laughing stock of the sporting world for her performance in the breaking competition at the Paris Olympics.

Gunn became an internet meme for her unorthodox moves, including one called "the kangaroo" which saw her raising one leg while standing and learning with her arms bent toward her ears. In another move, she reached for her toes while laying on her side, before flipping over and doing it again. Gunn's moves were widely ridiculed by professional dancers, who questioned how she qualified to compete at the Paris Games as an Olympic-level dancer.

While Gunn scored zero points in all three round-robin battles, head judge Martin Gilian has since praised the Aussie for not being afraid to take chances, shortly after the Australian Prime Minister asked Gunn to ignore online bullying.

"Breaking is all about originality and bringing something new to the table...and this is exactly what Raygun was doing," Gillian said, via BBC. "She got inspired by her surroundings, which in this case, for example, was a kangaroo."

Not everyone in the breaking community was as supportive of Gunn. Fellow Australian dancer Leah Clark admitted that Gunn's embarrassing showing in Paris was a poor reflection on breaking and the Aussie contingent in Paris.

"It's really affected us. We've got B-girls in tears about it," Clark said, via The Guardian. "How do I go to work now and try to get our sponsorship and get our grant money for breaking programs [for a sport] that's just been made a mockery of? And how do we go and represent our country at other world-level events when Australia's been made a fool of? This is actually affecting us on a much larger scale than just memes."

The sport of breaking won't be a part of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, with sports such as cricket, baseball and lacrosse returning to the Olympiad.

Gunn — who won the Oceania qualifier to earn her trip to the Paris Games — has criticized the IOC for dropping breaking as an Olympic sport.

"What is an Olympic sport? What are the similarities between dressage and artistic swimming and the 100m sprint and the pentathlon? Breaking is clearly athletic, it clearly requires a whole level of dedication across a number of different aspects," Gunn said, via Unilad .