“Australia must do better by its athletes and ensure that the principles of fairness, transparency, and integrity are upheld in all aspects of Olympic selection,” stated the petition set up anonymously by “someone who hates corruption”.
The AOC said it had written to the petition platform Change demanding the entry be withdrawn as it was “vexatious, misleading and bullying”.
“The petition has stirred up public hatred without any factual basis. It’s appalling. No athlete who has represented their country at the Olympic Games should be treated in this way and we are supporting Dr Gunn and Anna Meares at this time,” AOC Chief Executive Officer Matt Carroll said in a statement.
“It is disgraceful that these falsehoods concocted by an anonymous person can be published in this way. It amounts to bullying and harassment and is defamatory.”
Gunn, who is also a university lecturer on the cultural politics of breaking in Sydney, has been criticised for her Olympic showing, described as “excruciatingly bad” by some local press but backed by her fellow athletes and Meares. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also congratulated her for having “a crack”.
“The Olympics is all about participation and having a go, doing your best and representing your country,” he said in a local interview earlier this week.
Gunn explained after her performance that she had used creativity to get an edge over other “power moves” contestants who she knew she could not beat. On Thursday night, she said in an Instagram post she took the Olympics seriously and “worked her butt off”.
Gunn urged the press to stop harassing her family, friends and the Australian breaking and broader street dance community.
“I’m glad I was able to bring some joy into your lives … I didn’t realise that that would also open the door to so much hate, which is frankly, pretty devastating,” she said.
Carroll also said Gunn was selected to the Australian Olympic team “through a transparent and independent qualification event and nomination process”.
The qualification event, the World DanceSport Federation Oceania Breaking Championships, was held in Sydney, over two days last October.
Ausbreaking, one of the organisers of the event won by Gunn, which secured her a spot in the Olympics, also put out a statement earlier this week saying the qualification event was overseen by independent adjudicators and judges who used the same scoring system at the Olympics.
Both Gunn and Jeff Dunne, Australia’s male breakdancing representative also known as “J Attack”, were selected “based solely on their performance in their battles on that day”, it said.
Qualifying questions
Raygun’s kangaroo hops and snake slithering in her Paris performance started as entertainment, with celebrities like Adele calling her moves “f—ing fantastic”.
But the sentiment soon turned into disbelief with many online questioning how it met international breaking standards, particularly since the performances of other Olympic breakdancers as well as Australia’s own performers including that of “Holy Moly”, the runner-up in the qualification event, were “better”.
Holy Molly’s qualification performance has also been circulating on the internet.
Local press reported some performers could not afford the cost of an adult Australian passport of A$398 (US$263) to travel to Paris, deterring them from trying out.
One breakdancer told The Guardian the qualification event “was a really quick turnaround”, with little lead time between the announcement and the event itself.
She said while the breakdancing community had supported Gunn, her performance did not represent the standard of breaking in Australia.
The qualification event in Sydney attracted 37 B-boys but only 15 B-girls. The B-boys’ competition involved round robins but not the B-girls’.
There were also unsubstantiated theories online that Gunn’s husband was a member of the selection panel but Ausbreaking refuted that.
“This would have constituted a conflict of interest, and the Olympics hold strict standards that would never have allowed this to pass,” Ausbreaking said, adding it condemned the global online harassment of Gunn.
More vocal professional athletes were concerned Gunn’s performance made a mockery of the tough Olympic preparation.
A post by former Malaysian professional cyclist and Olympian Josiah Ng on Gunn’s Instagram page – and endorsed by thousands – said “the value of the Olympian brand has been severely diminished by this spectacle”.
“The original Olympic motto is Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger), yet nothing about her performance remotely embodied the Olympic spirit.”
The AOC and organisers of the qualification event did not reply to This Week in Asia when asked if the newness of the sport resulted in an under-organised qualification event which drew an under-represented talent pool, whether world standards were consulted before nominating Gunn, and why qualification events were not held in more venues across the country as opposed to just Sydney.
Making further clarifications in a general statement however, the AOC said in winning the qualification event which drew athletes from Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Fiji, Gunn was legitimately nominated for selection to the Australian Olympic team.
It said there were no appeals from athletes about her qualification win, and that Gunn did not hold any position with the organisers or have oversight of funding in her sport.
Indeed, it was entirely plausible that a new sport such as breaking could mean its selection process was not robust but, given time, it would become more rigorous, said Matt Harvey, a Victoria University senior law lecturer who has written about Olympic qualifications.
Harvey said not only was it new, it was also a very subjective “sport”.
He added while the AOC has a policy of only entering sports where Australians can “medal”, participation was also crucial.