Australian breakdancer Raygun’s performance at the Paris Olympics has set the sports ‘two steps back’, according to one of Ireland’s leading ‘b-boys’.
Raygun made international headlines for 'kangaroo-style' breakdancing routine at this year’s tournament – the first time the sport has been included in the event.
The Australian dancer has said she has since faced hate and cyberbullying online – and the fallout has divided and disappointed the global breaking community.
Irish breaker Leon Dwyer told Henry McKean for Newstalk Breakfast it's a disappointing milestone.
"It's our first time having breaking in a mainstream audience and obviously Raygun took all the talk," he said.
"She got very lucky to make it on to the stage - most likely [she] didn't deserve to be there - there was plenty of other high-level competitors.
"I'd call it more of a system fault, I wouldn't really blame her for what she did.
"Maybe she could have done it at a small event, not the Olympics".
Mr Dywer recently met Raygun at the IBE hip hop dance festival in The Netherlands.
"As a community we all stand together and obviously want to support her though the cyberbullying and everything that she's been through," he said.
"At the same time, we kind of want to change the perspective of breaking.
"Already there was a viewing on breaking as being from the street or not [being] taken seriously.
"We tried to push breaking to get into the Olympics so we could change that narrative."
Mr Dywer, however, said he feels the sport has "taken two steps back".
B-boy @HenryMcKean gets reaction to Raygun's performance at the Olympics (and picks up a few moves) from one of Ireland's leading breakdancers, Leon Dwyer. pic.twitter.com/79eyBlipg2
— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) August 26, 2024
Multidisciplinary artist Toby Omoteso told Henry there is a large breakdancing community in Ireland.
"There's a big one and we're hoping that in Youth Olympic Games somebody from Ireland would actually represent Ireland," he said.
"We need the country's support, literally, because there's no funding for us b-boys and b-girls that have been doing this for over 20 years," he added.
Breaking will not be at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles but the community hopes it will be reinstated in the next one.
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