In defence of breakdancer Raygun

How annoying must it be to win an Olympic title but be totally eclipsed by a competitor who failed to win a single contest? Such has been the fate of Ami Yuasa of Japan who defeated Dominika Banevič, the reigning World and European Champion, to win the Breaking gold medal at the recent Olympic Games. Her Olympic glory was totally overshadowed by 36-year-old Australian, Rachael Gunn (known competitively as Raygun) whose performance went viral despite losing each of her three preliminary battles, including a contest against Banevič (known as Nicka).

Raygun may have been comprehensively defeated on the cypher (the circle in which the battle takes place) but her performance easily rivalled the profile of any gold medallist, although mostly in ridicule through Tik Tok memes and disparaging (even hateful) commentary. A deeper dive revealed a tiny undercurrent of praise for her Antipodean originality; an important trait in a sport that requires breakers to improvise movement in 60-second rounds, to random music chosen by the event DJs.