BREAKDANCE
Raygun ranked No. 1 breaker in the world: Why did the WDSF give the Australian Olympian the top spot?
Rachel Gunn is the world’s number one breaker thanks to the points she earned for winning the WDSF Oceania Championship, which secured her spot in Paris Olympics.
![Australia's Rachael Gunn, known as Raygun, competes in the Women's Breaking dance Round robin of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at La Concorde in Paris, on August 9, 2024. Australia's "Raygun" has apologised for the backlash that her widely ridiculed Paris Olympics performance brought to the broader breakdancing community. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP)](https://img.asmedia.epimg.net/resizer/v2/OXG5N2P6O2AFRBNPNI5EBY3LHI.jpg?auth=6977b1bc12dc1377f74a02dd0038f0ba9ca0266a6483f5d73bb5b71401e5ecc8&width=360&height=203&focal=2949%2C1637)
Australian breakdancer RayGun has risen to the top of the global rankings in women’s breaking despite not scoring any points during her battles at the Paris Olympics. The 37-year-old claimed the No. 1 spot in the latest World Dance Sport Federation (WDSF) rankings.
![Paris (France), 09/08/2024.- Raygun of Australia breaks during her B-Girls round robin group B battle at the Breaking competitions in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, at the La Concorde in Paris, France, 09 August 2024. (Francia, Concordia) EFE/EPA/CAROLINE BLUMBERG](https://img.asmedia.epimg.net/resizer/v2/5MJKRSMRLO5QMAQEDSW2JBS4WA.jpg?auth=1014c5236d344323c7ff927aca218fa27e94c00d09cc14b9f95086ddd027b5ee&width=360)
After her gold medal victory at the 2023 WDSF Oceania Championships, Ray Gun’s ascent to the top of the rankings was expected. The 1,000 ranking points she earned propelled her to first place. It’s worth mentioning that the most recent rankings do not take into account results from Olympic events, including the Olympic qualifier series in Shanghai and Budapest. Therefore, her performance at the Olympics in Paris did not affect her ranking points.
The World DanceSport Federation (WDSF) ranking system takes into account the top four performances of athletes over a 12-month period. However, due to a reduction in the number of ranking events to allow dancers to focus on Olympic qualification, many athletes found themselves being ranked based on just a single event. For Ray Gun, her victory at the Oceania Continental Championships in October 2023 proved enough to clinch the top position in the rankings.
The rankings are expected to shift again following the upcoming Breaking for Gold World Series, scheduled for October, as more events are planned throughout the season.