Raygun, a 37-year-old college lecturer from Sydney, failed to attain any factors on the Paris Olympics in routines that included a “kangaroo” dance.
Australian breaker Rachael Gunn, or “b-girl Raygun,” holds the highest spot in her sport’s newest world rankings regardless of Olympic performances that led to on-line ridicule.
On Tuesday, the game’s governing physique issued an announcement to “present readability” on why Raygun tops the rankings.
Raygun, a 37-year-old college lecturer from Sydney, failed to attain any factors on the Paris Olympics in routines that included a “kangaroo” dance.
The World DanceSport Federation stated the rating methodology relies on every athlete’s high 4 performances inside the previous 12 months — however excludes Olympic occasions together with the Paris Video games and Olympic qualifier sequence occasions in Shanghai and Budapest.
Moreover, no rating occasions have been held between December 2023 and the Olympics — to permit athletes to give attention to qualification.
The federation clarified that the bizarre circumstances of this 12 months’s competitors schedule resulted in lots of athletes being ranked primarily based on a single occasion. In Raygun’s case, her first-place end on the Oceania continental championships in October 2023 earned her 1,000 factors.
Many inside the breaking neighborhood have criticized the rankings for not giving a transparent image of breaking as a sport and as a tradition.
“Talking of the WDSF, they really don’t have any actual advantage with the breakers or the breaking neighborhood,” stated Zack Slusser, vp of Breaking for Gold USA. “And so they additionally haven’t been capable of arrange occasions by their measure that will contribute to creating an correct world rating.”
In accordance with Slusser, breakers solely carried out in occasions organized by the WDSF — the Lausanne-based governing physique for aggressive dance sports activities — to get sufficient factors to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
Breakers “had no incentive, no want to even proceed taking part with the WDSF after that,” Slusser stated. “As a result of they’re not cultural occasions. They don’t seem to be satisfying.”
In distinction, Slusser pointed to worldwide breaking competitions like Red Bull BC One championships that “are like festivals which might be geared to the breakers. It’s in regards to the vibe, it’s in regards to the neighborhood.”
The WDSF stated rankings will change as soon as extra occasions happen, beginning with the Breaking for Gold World Sequence in Shanghai in October.
