What People Are Getting Wrong This Week: No, RayGun Didn't Cheat
I'm going to take one last look backwards at the 2024 Olympics to set the record straight about Australian B-Girl Rachael "RayGun" Gunn. Not to defend her performance at the Olympic's first breaking event, but to correct the misinformation that sprung up afterwards, and look at the internet pile-on her unusual performance wrought. Because the online shame-mob is very wrong about RayGun, and it's all shittier than you think.
RayGun did not "rig" the qualifying event to get her spot in the Olympics
Tweets like this one issue some serious accusations—"RayGun ran Australia's Olympic qualifier, created the rules, installed her husband as coach—none of the nation's best breakdancers were able to compete in the qualifier as a result of Dr. Rachel Gunn's decision not to cover travel expenses."
These accusation were spread and repeated so often they've been accepted as common knowledge online by now. But every word of this carefully crafted tweet is a lie.
According to the Australian Olympic Committee, the Olympic breaking qualifying event 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)."
Gunn is not part of any of those organizations. She competed in the qualifying event and won.
RayGun's husband Samuel Free is her coach, not the coach of the Australian Olympic team. Neither Free nor Gunn are on the governing body that scores breaking contests. They have no input on the Australian Olympic team's travel expenses or say in who can compete in qualifying events, either.
RayGun is not the reason breaking will not be included in the 2028 games
Breaking was never going to be included in the 2028 Games. With the exception of the "core" sports that are played at every Olympics, the contests are determined by the host city. Los Angeles opted not to include breaking before the Paris 2024 games even began.
The internet should be mad at saber fencing instead
Internet hate-mobs shouldn't exist, particularly for athletes, but if you need to be mad, be mad at saber fencing. Unlike in breaking, in saber fencing, coaches are often judges, including the guy who coaches both Tatiana Nazlymov and Mitchell Saron. They both made the USA fencing team, but competed under a cloud of suspicion and investigations as to whether they had help from referees in their qualifying matches.
There's too much to get into here, but fencing seems like a dirty sport. It may in fact be the most corrupt sport in the world. An internet hate-mob might actually do some good by digging into the byzantine world of professional fencing. But they found a woman to hate instead.
Why all the hatred for Rachel Gunn?
Rachel Gunn is not the first person to make the Olympic team and have a terrible showing at the games. In the past though, athletes who were in over their heads at the Olympics were usually viewed as beloved, scrappy underdogs. Inspirational figures instead of public enemies. Consider:
Eric "The Eel" Moussambani: The Eel made the Equatorial Guinea Olympic swimming team in 2000 and nearly had to be rescued by a lifeguard when swimming the 100 meters.
Michael David "Eddie The Eagle" Edwards: This ski-jumper made Great Britain's ski-jumping team at the winter games in 1988 because he was the only person from the UK who competed. He became world-famous despite coming in last in both of his events.
The Jamaican bobsleigh team: Speaking of the 1988 games, the Jamaican bobsleigh team was also adopted as the world's mascot despite crashing and not finishing their event. To be fair, they got better in future games.
Kinzang Lhamo: To bring it back to the 2024 Games, Bhutan's Olympic marathoner Kinzang Lhamo finished in three hours, 52 minutes, after walking parts of the route—a performance that would have been pretty good for a first marathon, but not good enough to qualified for a spot in the Boston Marathon. But Lhamo received a standing ovation. Deserved, sure, but why didn't Gunn get the same treatment?
Comedy, culture wars, and the RayGun hate mob
It's often difficult to say exactly why something "goes viral," but in the case of Gunn's breaking performance, comedy was definitely a big part of it. Gunn's awkward dance performance was undeniably funny in a way that watching someone struggle to finish a marathon is not.
I laughed too, but I also found her performance relatable. My reaction was like: "she's having fun out there; good for her for going for it so hard." But the internet isn't good at parsing complexity like that, so the more common reaction was more like "This is funny because she sucks! hyuk hyuk!" But things can't be just funny anymore. They have to be political.
The above-mentioned Twitter user took time out of their day to craft an alternative set of facts about Gunn and Photoshop what looks like a newspaper article to make it more believable. Then some other anonymous CHUD took the time to post an online petition (since removed for being lies) about Gunn and solicit signatures from other jerks. RayGun's virality may have started organically, but it was deliberately hijacked and weaponized and used to gather a hate mob under a culture war banner.
Gunn is a woman, and whenever a woman does anything, "supporters of Independent Journalism" like @amuse have a built-in audience of internet misogynists to help disseminate the lies. Plus she has a PhD In cultural studies—truly a perfect culture war villain. Then there's breaking itself.
Breaking is deeply suspect to purveyors of "conservative headlines." After all, breaking was invented largely by Black people. It's dance, which is inherently suspect, and you listen to hip-hop when you do it, and that's not even music. So it must be ridiculous and corrupt. Where fencing, with its long history, European roots, and Ivy-league athletes is surely an honest sport, so let's get mad over some dancer instead of looking at how you can buy yourself a spot on the Olympic fencing team.