Anish Vij
Raygun has spoken out on claims over how she qualified for the 2024 Olympics following her viral breakdancing routine which saw her slapped with zero points.
Australian breakdancer Rachael Gunn almost broke the internet after her unique performance in this year's Olympic Games.
Viewers couldn't believe what they were watching when her dance routine got zero points in all three rounds of the heats on 9 August.
Advert
The 36-year-old, who has a PhD in Cultural Studies and is a lecturer at Macquarie University, was seen hopping around like a kangaroo and writhing on the floor like a snake.
Amid a number of unexplainable moves, fans were wondering how she qualified for the Olympics in the first place.
Well, it was her dance routine in the WDSF Oceania Breaking Championships in 2023 which did it.
Gunn more than held her own while competing against fellow breaker Molly in the final, winning 2-1.
Advert
Her representatives have since squashed the various fan theories swirling around on social media on how she was paid to perform.
.jpg)
"The taxpayer does not fund the Australian Olympic Team’s campaign – costs are met entirely by the Australian Olympic Committee – which itself receives no Federal funding," they told LADbible.
"Rachael Gunn qualified for the Olympic Games by winning the Oceania Qualifying event held in Sydney last year.
"She receives no Federal funding for her sporting career."
Advert
Meanwhile, Raygun remains proud of her performance, telling reporters after the heats: "All my moves are original.
"Creativity is really important to me. I go out there and I show my artistry.
"Sometimes it speaks to the judges and sometimes it doesn’t.
"I do my thing, and it represents art. That is what it is about."
Despite finishing with a score of zero, her routine was met by some praise from the judges.
Advert
"Breaking is all about originality and bringing something new to the table and representing your country or region," judge Martin Gilian (MGbility) said in a press conference.
"This is exactly what Raygun was doing. She got inspired by her surroundings, which in this case, for example, was a kangaroo."
On her selection, Australian sporting body AusBreaking, who were responsible for sending Raygun to the Olympics, added: "A panel of nine international adjudicators, a head judge and a chairperson who oversaw the competition, using the same judging system at the Paris Games and trained to uphold the highest standards of impartiality."
The 21-year-old French pole vaulter attempted to clear the 5.70 metres on 3 August when his knee - along with his private parts - got in the way, shattering his Olympic dreams.
.webp)
Advert
Turkey's Yusuf Dikec took a laid back approach when he was spotted looking incredibly relaxed with one hand in his pocket and without any shooting gear on.
It all paid off though as he took home the silver along with his partner Sevval Ilayda Tarhan.
Setting a new personal best, Lyles came out on top at the finish line by a margin of just 0.005 seconds, with a final time of 9.784.
The final also marked the fastest race of all time, with all eight athletes crossing the finish line in under 10 seconds.
Snoop went viral after he rocked up to the dressage team Grand Prix Special fully kitted out in breeches, a dressage tailcoat and hard hat alongside pal Martha Stewart. Iconic.
.webp)
Ana Carolina Vieira was sent home after she and her boyfriend Gabriel Santos - also a swimmer competing in the Olympics - left the village without permission, which is against the Olympic Village rules.
Coxswain Henry Fieldman made history when he won bronze at the women's crews event off the back of his bronze win in Tokyo on the men's team.
Fieldman was able to achieve the feat because of a rule change back in 2017 that allows coxes of either gender to steer the eights.
.webp)
While Canada’s Tyler Mislawchuk vomited after swimming in the river, Belgian triathlete Jolien Vermeylen admitted she 'felt and saw things that we shouldn’t think about too much'.
It came after health concerns were raised over the pollution levels in the river, with the country splashing out a cool £1.18 billion on cleaning it up in time for the games.
The Team USA star purposely put on a leisurely performance in his first heat of the Men's 110m hurdles and ended up being the last one to make it across the finish line with a time of 18.27 seconds.
The athlete said it was a calculated move to avoid aggravating a sore muscle in his leg and due to the introduction of repechage rounds, he knew that he'd have another chance at glory.
The pool at the Paris La Défense Arena is 2.15 metres deep which is short of the minimum of 2.5 metres that World Aquatics recommends for an Olympic competition, prompting backlash from viewers.
As a result of the difference in depth, an issue called 'slow' swimming is created where the water is more volatile when dispersed than in a deeper pool.
The Algerian boxer faced Italy's Angela Carini in the round of 16 match on 1 August when Carini - who has since apologised - decided to abandon the match after 46 seconds.
Khelif - who was born and raised a girl - was disqualified from last year’s Women’s World Boxing Championships in New Delhi amid claims from the International Boxing Association that she was not able to meet their unspecified eligibility criteria.
Khelif has since been at the centre of a gender row, and has urged people to 'refrain from bullying all athletes' amid abuse online.
In the end, she silenced her critics in the best way possible: with a gold medal in the welterweight division.
The Paraguayan swimmer was said to have been asked to leave the village amid accusations of creating an 'inappropriate environment', according to a statement from her team.
Alonso - who also announced her retirement from the sport - has since denied the claims and urged people to 'stop spreading false information'.
.webp)
The athlete, who won gold in the men's 100m backstroke, was spotted taking a nap outside by Saudi rower Husein Alireza who posted it to his Instagram account, tagging the spot as a location within the official Olympic Village.
Speaking about his accommodation, Ceccon said: "It's hard to sleep both at night and in the afternoon. Usually, when I'm at home, I always sleep in the afternoon. Here I really struggle between the heat and the noise."
The convicted child rapist was booed as he competed in the preliminary phase of the beach volleyball men’s tournament at the start of the games last month.
In 2016, Van de Velde was sentenced to four years in prison after admitting three counts of rape against a 12-year-old girl in August 2014, with many furious that he has been allowed to compete in the Olympics.
The men's 5,000 metres heats erupted into chaos on Wednesday (7 August), with Team GB's George Mills accusing France's Hugo Hay of pushing him.
The two athletes even shared a tense exchange at the finish line.
Four runners ended up on the floor in the tumble, with three of them put through to the final.
But Mills ultimately didn't end up with a medal, finishing 21st in the final with a time of 13:32:32.
It was a heartbreaking Olympics for Team USA gymnast Jordan Chiles.
After she'd walked away with a bronze medal on the women's floor exercise gymnastics, a court ruled that a Team USA inquiry that secured her podium finish came four seconds too late.
As such, Romania's Ana Barbosu was reinstated in third, with Chiles potentially having to hand back her medal.