Rachael Gunn, an Olympian from Australia who gained international attention for her performance at the Paris Games and went by the nickname B-Girl Raygun, is currently the top breaker in the world.
The World DanceSport Federation (WDSF), which oversees breaking and other dancesports, recently announced its women’s rankings, with the 37-year-old taking first place.
In August, Raygun competed in the Olympics against breakers from the United States, France, and Lithuania. However, her performances were ineffective as she lost all three rounds. But in the 2023 WDSF Oceania Championships, she took home the gold medal, earning 1,000 ranking points and leaping to the top of the rankings. She earned a trip to Paris, thanks to her triumph in the Oceania Championships.
The plot twist
Strangely enough, not a single Olympic B-Girl medallist is rated in the top 10. China’s 671, Japan’s Ami, and Lithuania’s Nicka took home gold, silver, and bronze, respectively, at the recent Games.
The WDSF stated that each athlete’s top four performances over the previous 12 months were used to update their rankings. Points obtained in these contests are valid for 52 weeks following the event date. Furthermore, the governing body stated that because of restricted athlete quotas, the Olympic qualifying events in Shanghai and Budapest as well as the actual Paris Games did not factor in the ranking list.
“In alignment with the Olympic Qualification System, ranking events were intentionally not held between 31 December 2023 and the Olympic Games Paris 2024. This strategic scheduling allowed athletes to focus solely on the last part of their Olympic qualification without the added pressure of additional ranking events…. By the end of the Olympic Games, many of the competition results included in the ranking had expired, leading to the current situation where many athletes have only one competition result contributing to their ranking,” the WDSF declared.
The list will alter when the next round of 12-month points expires and the Breaking for Gold World Series is held in Shanghai in October.
Source: CNN