Rachael Gunn of Australia, better known as B-Girl Regan, competes during the Round Robin Battle in the Breaking competition at the 2024 Summer Olympics at La Concorde Urban Park on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin)
PARIS – The breaking community wants world b-girl Regan to take a break after the Paris Olympics conclude.
The sport made its debut at the Paris Olympics – it may never return – and its most enduring image was the performance of an Australian b-girl named Regan, who did the “kangaroo dance” and scored zero points.
In an expression of support on Sunday, the breaking competition’s head judge said university professor Rachael Gunn, 36, was just trying to be original. And the breaking federation said it had offered mental health support in the wake of online criticism.
READ: Japan’s b-girl Ami wins first breaking gold medal at Olympics
“Breaking means originality and bringing something new and representing your country or region,” Chief Justice Martin Gillian – known as MGability – said at a press conference. “That’s what Regan was doing. She got inspiration from her surroundings, which in this case, for example, was a kangaroo.”
He added that the breaking and hip-hop communities definitely stand behind him.
“We have five criteria in the competitive judging system and maybe her level wasn’t as high as the other competitors,” Mgability said. “But then again, that doesn’t mean she did really bad. She did her best. She won the Oceania qualifier. … Unfortunately, the other b-girls were better than her.”
World DanceSport Federation secretary general Sergei Nifontov said they were in direct contact with Gunn and Australian Olympic team officials
“We have offered our support to our safety officer. We are aware of what has happened, especially on social media, and of course we must put the athlete’s safety, in this case mental safety, first and foremost,” he said. “As a federation we are supporting him.”
Breaking — known to many as break dancing, a term its performers dislike — is not on the program for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The next summer games will be held in Brisbane, Australia.
Read: Breakdancing included in 2024 Paris Olympics to reach out to youth
When asked about Regan’s criticism and return to the Olympics, Nifontov said, “We believe this has nothing to do with our chances for Brisbane 2032.”
Ami Yusa of Japan, known as B-Girl Ami, won the gold medal and said she wished the Los Angeles organisers had waited to experience the energy between the players and the crowd at Place de la Concorde.
“I’m very sad that it’s not happening in Los Angeles, because breaking was born in the US,” he said on Sunday. “Breaking is not just a sport, it’s a way of expressing yourself and an art.”
Federation president Shaun Tay defended the development – what began as an art form in the Bronx in the 1970s has now been included in the Olympics. Critics have questioned the commercialisation of the sport.
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“From the beginning we were warned that some of the breakers – the top breakers – might not participate,” he said. “But now we have managed to get them all – we have all the best breakers. Now they are fighting for the pride of their country – it is a completely different thing. And this has really motivated them to improve a lot, to work so hard in a more scientific way.”
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