Breakdancing community speaks out as Aussie athletes produce brilliant act for Raygun at Olympics

Athletes and judges are showing their support for Australia's Rachael 'Raygun' Gunn after she copped some intense backlash for her performance at the Paris Olympics. Raygun has become an international meme after a bizarre display as breakdancing made its debut at the Paris Games.

The Australian didn't score a single point in her three battles, and has been widely criticised on social and mainstream media. But amid the backlash, her fellow breakdancers have spoken out to show their support.

One of the lasting images of the Paris Olympics was Raygun's performance, after she did a "kangaroo dance" and scored zero points. She lost all three of her round-robin battles by a combined score of 54-0, prompting a hostile response.

But the head judge of the breaking competition in Paris said 36-year-old university professor was just trying to be original. And the international breaking federation has now reached out to offered mental health support in the wake of the raft of criticism.

"Breaking is all about originality and bringing something new to the table and representing your country or region," head judge Martin Gilian - known as MGbility - said at a press conference on Sunday as the Olympics came to a close. "This is exactly what Raygun was doing. She got inspired by her surroundings, which in this case, for example, was a kangaroo."

He said the breaking and hip-hop communities "definitely stand behind her, adding: "We have five criteria in the competitive judging system and just her level was maybe not as high as the other competitors. But again, that doesn't mean that she did really bad. She did her best. She won the Oceania qualifier. ... Unfortunately for her, the other b-girls were better."

Sergey Nifontov, the general secretary of the World DanceSport Federation, said they had been in direct contact with Gunn and Australian Olympic team official to offer support. "We offered (the) support of our safe-guarding officer," he said. "We are aware about what has happened, especially on social media, and definitely we should put the safety of the athlete, in this case, mental safety in first place. She has us as a federation supporting her."

Athletes show support for Australia's 'Raygun' at Olympics

Australia's Chef de Mission Anna Meares launched an emotional defence of Raygun on Saturday, and some of her fellow breakers have also spoken out. Aussie Jeff ‘J-Attack’ Dunne, who participated in the men’s competition on Sunday and did considerably better, said: “All I know is she represented hard, she has been the leading breaker in Australia for the women and I acknowledge her and respect her 100 per cent."

American breaker Victor Montalvo sent Raygun a message to keep her chin up. "Any publicity is good publicity and even bad publicity is good publicity,” Montalvo said. “Just ignore them. It’s social media. She is at the highest level. The amount of pressure you have here is incredible. I give her props for being up on that stage.”

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Ukrainian breaker Kuzya added: “Breaking is a culture which is always improving from one era to another. I don’t want to criticise the girl from Australia, but she is older and there would be people who would think her routine was old-fashioned. They would say it was not professional enough for this stage. That is why she would be criticised."

And her fellow Aussie athletes treated her like a gold medallist as they made their way to the closing ceremony on Sunday night. Raygun was given a guard of honour as she was hoisted in the air in a wonderful show of support from her peers.

Raygun speaks out about bizarre performance

Gunn had earlier revealed she knew she couldn't match her competitors' athleticism, so decided to try and be original. "What I wanted to do was come out here and do something new and different and creative - that's my strength, my creativity," said Gunn.

"I was never going to beat these girls on what they do best, the dynamic and the power moves, so I wanted to move differently, be artistic and creative because how many chances do you get that in a lifetime to do that on an international stage. I was always the underdog and wanted to make my mark in a different way."

with AAP