But breaking is not just any sport. Until the news came that it was going to be an Olympic sport, breaking was a street dance, a youth culture, a pillar of hip hop that had nothing to do with traditional associations and structures. But then the International Dance Sport Federation took on breaking and shaped it according to its own and the Olympic ideas. Everything was new: associations, trainers, courses, competitions. And the qualification system for Paris. And a world ranking list. What you can destroy if you know little about a sport was shown in Paris.
While the best dancers in the world thrilled the audience, the only participant who has as much to do with breaking as, say, Amira Pocher with the ballet ensemble of the Paris Opera was at the center of the headlines: the 37-year-old Australian Rachael Gunn, who performed a kind of kangaroo dance, a farce beyond compare, and received more attention than the stars of the scene from the media, who are more interested in such embarrassments than in real athletes. The question of how such an amateurish performance could make it into the field of only 16 participants in Paris was quickly answered.
The qualification meant that the winners of the continental championships qualified directly for Paris. Rachael Gunn won in Oceania. Why? Because serious breakers could not or did not want to afford the travel costs to the qualifying competition. The incompetence of the association had given a clever amateur a way to Paris. You might find a certain charm in this in memory of the ski jumper “Eddy the Eagle”, but the opposite is the case.
In Paris, the federation and Rachael Gunn disgraced breaking and pushed the stars of the scene, all great athletes and dancers, into the background. You can dismiss the Australian’s performance as a joke, but for breaking, this joke is not funny. The discipline is fighting for its Olympic future.
The Breakers will not be there in four years in Los Angeles, that was already clear before the games in Paris. But they had hoped again for 2032. Then the Summer Games will take place in Brisbane, Australia. In Australia of all places. The organizers there will think twice about whether to revive the Breakers’ Olympic career with a wildcard when they read the latest report that Rachael Gunn is currently number one in the dance association’s world rankings. No joke.
