Australia’s Olympic Chief Blames ‘Sexism’ for Criticism of Female Breakdancer

Australia’s Olympic chief, Anna Meares, is striking back at critics of the country’s female Olympic breakdancer and blaming “sexism” for the attacks on her much-criticized performance.

Meares’ attack came after the performance of Aussie breakdancer Rachael Gunn became a target for ridicule on social media.

“I love Rachel,” Meares said. “I think that what has occurred on social media with trolls and keyboard warriors, and taking those comments and giving them airtime, has been really disappointing.”

Meares went on with an unintentionally unflattering picture of Dunn’s breakdancing history, adding, “If you don’t know Rachel’s story, in 2008, she was locked in a room crying, being involved in a male-dominated sport as the only woman.”

The Aussie Olympics president characterized Dunn’s inclusion on the Australian breakdancing team as a victory for feminism.

“It took great courage for her to continue on and fight for her opportunity to participate in a sport that she loved and that got her to winning the Olympic qualifying event to be here in Paris,” she exclaimed.

“She is the best breakdancer female that we have for Australia,” Meares added before noting that Australia sent no women athletes to the Olympics in 1924, but this year sent 256 women.

Gunn, 36, has been skewered on social media for being a “PhD in breakdancing” and for being a university professor of “cultural politics” at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, where she researches “Breaking, street dance, and hip-hop culture; youth cultures/scenes; constructions of the dancing body; politics of gender and gender performance; ethnography; the methodological dynamics between theory and practice.”

Regardless, Gunn has become a focus of much internet trolling since her appearance in Paris:

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