An Australian breakdancer’s odd performance at the Olympics has sparked claims that she was using her time in the international spotlight to boost her academic career.

Rachael Gunn, whose stage name is RayGun, went viral across the world after the 36-year-old failed to score a single point in Paris on Friday.

The controversial performance featured kangaroo hopping, slithering like a snake and even using ‘the sprinkler’, an iconic Aussie dance movie widely used by men who can’t dance. 

It soon emerged that Gunn is a lecturer at Sydney‘s Macquarie University and has a PhD in cultural studies – focusing on the ‘politics of gender and gender performance’ and ‘the methodological dynamics between theory and practice.’

Gunn’s LinkedIn page notes she is ‘interested in the cultural politics of breaking.’ 

It soon emerged that Gunn is a lecturer at Sydney ‘s Macquarie University and has a PhD in cultural studies 

Her qualifications have led to theories that Gunn used her Olympic debut to bulk up her research work and show how the inclusion of Breakdancing in the Olympics could negatively affect the sport in Australia. 

Many have accused the professor of using the stage to protest the ‘institutionalization’ of breakdancing,’ given her scholarly work, which argues the subculture is at risk of being co-opted by officials, commercialized and put through a rigid judging structure.’

Podcaster Hannah Berrelli claimed on X that Gunn was ‘trying to make some subversive point she can later write journal articles about.’ 

Berrelli wrote: ‘This whole episode is demonstrative of the supreme selfishness of woke identity politics studies. Her little stunt diminishes Australia on the world stage. Hundreds of Australian athletes who will have dedicated their entire lives to athletic excellence will be forgotten, because Rachael wanted to bulk up her ResearchGate profile.’

CUNY sociology professor Devrim Yavuz had a similar take, writing: ‘I am 98% convinced that this is a “breaching experiment” that #Raygun did as part of an ethnography on gender and sports at the #olympicgames break dancing competition or is performance art.’

SkyNews editor Jack Houghton argued in an editorial that Gunn ‘had planned to turn her joke of an Olympics performance into some sort of paper on one of the aforementioned academic buzzwords.’ 

Raygun became an overnight sensation for all the wrong reasons after failing to score a single point during breaking’s first appearance at the Olympics

In her paper, titled The Australian breaking scene and the Olympic Games:  the possibilities and politics of sportification, Gunn argues that this commercialization is against the spirit of breakdancing, which is rooted in local communities, centered around street battles, cyphers and block parties.

The paper states: ‘This trajectory points towards an increasing loss of self-determination, agency and spontaneity for local Australian breakers and will have profound consequences for the way in which hip hop personhood is constantly “remade and renegotiated” in Australia.’

Indigenous leader and sports administrator Megan Davis also accused Gunn of intentionally botching her Olympics performance, calling it a ‘disgrace.’

‘Getting zero points on purpose in three rounds for an academic study subsidised by the taxpayer both at a university and Olympic level isn’t funny and isn’t ‘having a go’,’ she said on ­social media via The Australian. ‘(It’s) disrespectful to other competitors.

Many have accused the professor of using the stage to protest the ‘institutionalization’ of breakdancing

The Australian has revealed that Gunn did not receive any grants from the Australian Sports Commission or Macquarie University, and that the only public grant she was given was in November 2022 – a one-year instalment of $20,278 for leading a research study called ‘Spaces for Street Dance’. 

Adding to the speculation to her true motives are Gunn’s own statements – she admitted post-event that she couldn’t compete athletically with the tricks and spins of her younger opponents and her intention was always to highlight her ‘creativity.’

Gunn also said she will probably write about her Olympic experience  one she has ‘recovered.’

Gunn classified for the Olympics when she won the Oceania Breaking Championships in Australia in 2023

RayGun was awarded the honor of Australian Sports Star of the Year in 2023 by youth publication Pedestrian

According to her research profile, Gunn was the Australian Breaking Association’s top ranked bgirl – the term for female breakdancers – in 2020 and 2021.

She also participated in the World Breaking Championships in Paris in 2021, in Seoul in 2022, and in Leuven, Belgium, in 2023.

Gunn classified for the Olympics when she won the Oceania Breaking Championships in Australia in 2023.

Despite the speculation,  Gunn’s father-in-law Andrew Free, took to social media on Saturday to complain about the judges, partly blaming them for her poor performance.

Meanwhile in a show of support on Sunday, the head judge of the breaking competition Martin Gilian, known as MGbility, said that Gunn embodied the spirit of the discipline in her effort to be original. 

And he revealed that the breaking federation had offered her mental health support in the wake of the backlash.

‘Breaking is all about originality and bringing something new to the table and representing your country or region,’ MGbility said in a press conference. ‘This is exactly what Raygun was doing. She got inspired by her surroundings, which in this case, for example, was a kangaroo.’

Moreover, Chef de mission Anna Meares says Gunn should be applauded for her courage, rather than pilloried for her performance at the Paris Games.

Australia’s chef de mission in Paris, Anna Meares (pictured) said criticism of Raygun is the same sort of misogynistic abuse that has been directed at generations of female athletes

‘I love Rachael,’ Meares told reporters on Saturday. ‘She is the best breakdancer female that we have for Australia.

Meares likened the criticism to historic misogynistic abuse directed at female athletes as they fought for recognition in the sporting world.

‘Now you look at the history of what we have had as women athletes, have faced in terms of criticism, belittlement, judgement, and simple comments like ‘they shouldn’t be there’,’ she said

‘One-hundred years ago, leading into Paris 1924, Australia sent a team of 37 athletes – none were women.

‘One-hundred years later, we have 256 women representing here.’