Australian Olympian Rachael ‘Raygun’ Gunn has been named as the world’s top female breakdancer by the World DanceSport Federation. Raygun topped the ranking with 1,000 points thanks for her single win at the Oceania Continental Championship last October. This, despite her losing every match in the field during the Paris Olympics each by scores of 18-0, and thoroughly embarrassing the “sport,” herself, and the Games themselves.
So how could this academic narcissist, Dr. Rachael Gunn, who hopped around like a kangaroo in her Olympic routine be the #1 ranked women’s breakdancer in the whole wide world in the latest rankings when her total score of 0 points put her in last place among the 16 breakers in the main Olympic competition?
My answer: it’s the “March of Folly” phenomenon. Everyone knows this honor makes no sense, and everyone knows that such a self-evidently absurd rankig will discredit everyone involved. However, just as in the Charge of the Light Brigade, the launching of the Challenger Space Shuttle, and so many other disasters throughout history where it seemed easier to just stay on the path to chaos than to stand up and scream, “NO! Stop! This is insane!” the World DanceSport Federation decided it was easier to look ridiculous than to avoid an obvious fiasco.
The group released a statement “explaining” the seeming incongruity.” why an obviously terrible “breaker” is officially the best breaker. See, the ranking is based on events over the past year when the majority of breakers were focused on qualifying for the Olympics. Olympic qualifying events and the Olympics themselves do not count toward the world rankings, and there were few in the last 52 weeks that weren’t Olympics-related. Raygun’s only ranked competition in that time period was the Oceania Continental Championships that she won in Sydney in October 2023 against a pathetic field: Raygun had finished 64th at the world championships the month prior. Nevertheless, that single win got Raygun 1,000 points, enough for the top ranking. It’s a short-lived victory, because Raygun’s Oceania victory will drop out of the rankings next month when it becomes a year old.
It doesn’t matter, though. Such a ludicrous ranking is ruinous; it compounds the damage of this woman’s Olympics debacle; it destroys the World DanceSport Federation’s credibility and holds its sport up to mockery. In such a situation, a competent, responsible organization announces that because of unanticipated irregularities, there will be no official rankings until later in the year.
Ethics Alarms 
Also: “the world’s top female breakdancer.” Operative word, “female?” How many are there?
Probably more than you think. Red Bull sponsors one of the best breaking competitions in the world: “Dance Your Style.” I’ve watched a few vids on YT, and the talent is jaw dropping; more than a few of them female.
Actually, that leads me to wonder — as someone who knows absolutely nothing about breakdancing — are there sex based advantages to this activity? Would men have an advantage or should there just be an open competition?
I’m guessing that there would be an advantage as there is probably some sort of acrobatic component to this activity and, as we know, guys can jump higher, leap farther, etc.
Just a thought, and one that is no more absurd than this ranking.
I wouldn’t bet on a male advantage. Have you seen some of the female gymnasts, like Simone Biles?
Almost across the board, males’ physical advantage translates into an insurmountable advantage in sports and other physical activities.
It’s so strong that, in the competitive sports/dance arena, sex-based differences should be presumed to exist and should be presumed to affect fairness, unless and until proven otherwise.
Having grown up in the ballet world, I would say that men excel where short bursts of power are required: jumps, leaps, etc. Where women excel is in sustained, graceful, movement. To be graceful actually takes an enormous amount of strength.
Women are also wiry. Ask my ex-husband – a retired LEO, or my son – a corrections officer. Women are often harder to get under physical control than a man. We’re slippery little buggers!
All that is to say, different strengths lend themselves equally well and a good dancer knows how and when to employ them.
That makes sense, and it’s probably a good argument for having separate men’s and women’s competition. You can competitively play to your strengths.
It looks to me like this is an artifact of break dancing’s novelty as an organized sport. The people competing at the Olympics aren’t the same people competing under the aegis of the World DanceSport Federation, which is a separate group again from the informal communities actually practicing breakdancing. The later are classically found in slums and ghettoes among teenagers and college-aged young adults. People like Raygunn, whose social class allows them to navigate well into their 30s without doing much of what most people would consider real work, are well-placed to create, lead, and dominate formal international organizations. Actual breakdancing, not so much.
Take a lifetime of participation trophies, the sense of entitlement that liberal white academics bestow on themselves, a healthy dose of arrogance and feminist dumbassery; combine it with the healthy scent of her own farts and you get Rachel Gunne.