voilà qui va répondre à beaucoup de questions

The following txt is copied from a post by Dujon Cullingford, who was involved in the Oceania qualifiers.

His insight into the process is from first hand experience. So is therefore far more qualified than most to speak on it. Given the info' below, you can have a more informed view on if you think the selection process is flawed or not:
"Now that Breaking at Paris Olympics 2024 is done and everybody is a Breaking expert, here are some FAQs touching on the hot topics right now from a down under perspective…
Firstly, as a co-lead for our Aotearoa New Zealand team and with 25 years in our Breaking scene, I'd rather address these topics head-on than leave it to people outside of our dance community who have no knowledge on the Olympic process, Oceania selection, Breaking technicalities etc. I've read some wild generalisations and hugely incorrect info from people and media who have trivialised issues to supplement their lack of understanding.
Secondly, I get it. Most people in the public know nothing about Breaking so it's easier to moan and have an algorithm orgy about Raygun than to dig deep and understand the gigantic effort that thousands of Bboys & Bgirls put in to get the dance to the Olympics, and celebrate the incredible skill and artistry that was on display to a global audience over the 2 days from the dancers. What an absolute joy it was for us participants of the dance and Hip Hop culture to see it on the world stage and in full glory!
At the end of the day, most people talking about Breaking are not actually interested in it. It's just the social media topic of the week. So, here we go with some FAQs:
1. Breaking is not a sport!
We are a dance and a sport! The correct and official term is dancesport. We maintain the artistic integrity of the dance and honour the physical challenge of the sport.
2. How did Raygun get to the Olympics?
In October '23, the Oceania Champs took place in Sydney, Aus. This was a continental qualifier which gave the male and female winners direct qualification to Paris with runner up spots allowing dancers to compete in Shanghai and Budapest against the top 40 in the world towards Paris selection.
There was a call out a few months prior. You register. Then compete. You needed to throw down a strong round on the day to make it through the prelims, then progress on to 1 vs 1 battles. Raygun made it through the prelims and successfully beat the other Bgirls in several battles to take the top spot.
There is no selection bias from Aussie or inside special treatment as suggested by some of the public, because the battles are strictly skill-based and the decision-making process is completely outsourced to a strict panel of 9 international judges who judge each battle across the 5 criteria until a champion emerges.
Another stupid theory I've heard multiple times is that her husband was on the judging panel for Oceania Champs. Uhh no lol. Check the line up if you need to : https://www.worlddancesport.org/.../Oceania-Championship...
That puts to rest a lot of theories which entertains the idea that she was ‘picked' because of her professional standing or relation to the organisation, or she manufactured the line-up lol. You can't even get picked if you wanted to.
3. So she beat NZers at the Oceania Champs?
Yup. We took a team from Aotearoa New Zealand to the Oceania Champs which was mostly male. We happen to be in a time here in NZ where many of our top Bgirls have retired or are now inactive. Our top ranking NZ Bgirl withdrew from competition so we scrambled to backfill positions. We had 2 of our Bgirls who had literally just had babies (I spent a few hours at oceania champs holding one of the babies in the backroom while she competed lol), and one of our beginning Bgirls who was keen to rep for NZ.
The public seem to think because we have an outstanding record in Hip Hop dance on the global stage that this equates to Breaking. They are different dance forms with very different sets of infrastructure. Our Breaking scene is small.
4. Why was the skill level of Oceania lower than the rest of the world?
Breaking participation is low in Oceania. It is easier to finger-point at Raygun's performance than find out what lead us to the lack of Bgirls down here. It is a topic for another day, because it is complex, multi-generational and explores a variety of factors in our community. We have some absolutely incredible Bboys and Bgirls, but until we invest serious resource into the dancesport, we will not see the infrastructure needed to support our dancers to flourish on the world stage IMO. Side note: there are some incredible and experienced Bgirls that did not enter Oceania champs.
5. White privilege / Cultural appropriation

• Edit, I wrote specifically about the qualification process and her movement originally. Now, there is a range of other talking points under this banner so I will amend some of this.

It seems Raygun has become a scapegoat for a range of conflating issues. A few theories suggest Rayguns academic standing, middle class background and white privilege bought her the ticket to Paris. As we have addressed above, that is impossible as it is a skills-based competition judged at scutinised Olympic level. She just happens to literally compete in the weakest continental qualifier in the world and win. Some of you need to get familiar with our Breaking scene before you write a thesis, particularly the skills gap between our region and others.
I can only assume under this theory, that the other middle class dancers are under the same scrutiny from the public as they used their power to gain entrance?
6. Skills
As for her actual performance at the Olympics, it may not have been a strong performance compared to the rest of the dancers, but that was to be expected from our region based on the turn out at Oceania Champs.
People have been really confused by her Breaking style. Some people think she is deliberately mocking the dance, and this is the source of their theory about entitlement and gentrification on the world stage. Some of you haven't danced in a battle and it shows! She simply did not have the speed or finesse required to execute her movements at a high skill level so the sharp lines, swift combos and contrasting movements required to deliver an impact performance looked considerably more sluggish than the other competitors. The gesturing and characterisation which is a normal part of Breaking was marred by the lack of execution, and isolated for meme content.
If a high level Bgirl executed Raygun's choreography at speed, and sprinkled some strength moves in between, no one would even bat an eyelid!
As a solution, another reputable Bboy suggests a global benchmark score should be implemented in the regional qualifier stage. So, if a winner does not meet the minimum world requirement, they could be redirected into further global qualifying battles for improvement instead of direct qualification to Olympics. This would help with quality control and expectation management of spectators majorly.