The World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) has named Australia's viral Olympic breakdancer Rachael "Raygun" Gunn as the No. 1 B-Girl in the world. Sure, why not.
Raygun rose to international notoriety during the Paris Olympics, with her widely panned moves failing to score her a single point across all six rounds in all three battles she danced in. Of particular note was a move in which she curled her hands in front of her and hopped like a kangaroo. Her performance quickly went viral, with people across the globe mocking her unorthodox style.
Despite this, Raygun has now managed to snag the top place on the WDSF Breaking World Ranking List of B-Girls. She is currently followed in rankings by Riko Tsuhako from Japan and Anna "Stefani" Ponomarenko of Ukraine. Australian breakdancers Molly Therese "Holy Molly" Chapman and Hannah Georgina Belet are ranked fourth and fifth, having also won second and third place at the competition where Raygun qualified for this year's Olympic Games.
How did Raygun become the No. 1 B-Girl in the world?
According to WDSF, its world rankings are governed by the organisation's Breaking Rules and Regulations Manual and are based on each competitor's top four performances at ranking events within the past 12 months.
However, such events were deliberately suspended from the start of this year in the lead up to the Paris Olympics. In a statement released on Tuesday, the WDSF said that this was in order to allow dancers to focus on qualifying for the Olympics without having to split their attention to ranking events.
While most of the Olympic qualifying breaking events were held in 2023 (including the Oceania Breaking Championships which resulted in Raygun's qualification), the final Olympic Qualifiers Series were held in May and June 2024. The results of both these qualifiers and the Olympic Games themselves weren't taken into account when determining the WDSF's rankings "due to limited athlete quotas."
Due to this disruption in the competitive breaking circuit, the WDSF noted that many competitors only had a single event contributing to their ranking. As such, Raygun's 2180 points across two events was enough to snag her the top position.
"Until WDSF ranking events recommence later this year, therefore, the world rankings as they currently stand should be interpreted in conjunction with results from recent global Breaking competitions for a more accurate reflection of the global competitive landscape," said WDSF.
Riko technically earned more points overall than Raygun as well. However, the WDSF stated that more weight was given to Raygun's 1000 points from the Oceania Breaking Championships than Riko's 1000 from the Breaking for Gold World Series, as the former is considered a higher-level competition.
Basically, Raygun is only ranked first in the world right now due to a few technicalities. Even so, it's unlikely she'll hold her No. 1 position for long. Raygun's WDSF ranking points from the Oceania Breaking Championships are due to expire at the end of October, the same month another competition will be held in Shanghai.
Raygun stands by her Olympic performance
Raygun recently defended her Olympic performance in her first interview after the event, attributing the deluge of criticism she'd received to "people not being very familiar with breaking." When asked whether she thought she was the best breakdancer in Australia, the 37-year-old stated that she believes her "record speaks to that."
"It's just a different approach in breaking," Raygun told Australian talk show The Project. "You have the athletics style breakers, you also have the more artistic style breakers, and all of them are very valid."
Even so, the general public remains largely unconvinced.
Breakers vs. The World DanceSport Federation
Unfortunately for the WDSF, the organisation's continued insistence on Raygun's skills has only undermined its authority to many who saw her performance with their own eyes. Some have further questioned the WDSF's suitability to govern breaking at all, particularly as the organisation's roots are in competitive ballroom dancing.
These criticisms aren't new. In 2017 over 2000 people signed a Change.org petition by B-Boy Serouj "Midus" Aprahamian entitled "Get the WDSF's Hands Off Hip-Hop". Like Raygun, Midus is also a university professor with a focus on dance. Unlike Raygun, he stated in his petition that WDSF "has absolutely no connection or credibility with any legitimate entity in the worldwide breaking community." Midus accused the WDSF of pivoting to breaking merely to get a foothold in the Olympics, with the hope of eventually convincing the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to add ballroom dancing.
Though the WDSF has denied such accusations, it had initially contracted consultant Jean-Laurent Bourquin to petition the IOC for ballroom dancing's inclusion in the Olympics. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Bourquin convinced the WDSF to shift its focus to breaking as having a better chance of success. Sadly, he hadn't realised at the time that the WDSF held no authority in the breaking community.
The end result is the situation we are now living in, with breakdancing bringing to mind Australian university lecturers kangaroo hopping at the Olympics. Considering the international attention Raygun garnered with her performance, it's likely to be a while before that association fades.
