When breakdancer Rachael Gunn – aka Raygun – dropped out of the Olympic Games in Paris, the shockwave spread to a tiny hip-hop scene on the other side of the world.

In a Sydney warehouse-turned-community centre, participants warm up with abdominal exercises that would make a Pilates teacher cry before taking to the dance floor with acrobatic moves so complicated they’re barely recognizable.

It’s one of the most important events of the year – a qualifier for the Red Bull BC One World Finals – and the past week has been a heavy one.

A few people glance nervously at the handful of cameras lining the dance circle, their minds no doubt flashing with images of Gunn that have sent the internet into a frenzy.

“I feel like it’s pushed our scene in Australia back into the dark ages,” Australian hip-hop pioneer Spice told the BBC.

Gunn, a 36-year-old university lecturer, lost all three of her Olympic fights in viral fashion. her green tracksuit and her unorthodox routine – which included the sprinkler system and kangaroo-style hopping – and sparked a wave of memes and insults.

The consequences have left the Australian breaking community divided and disappointed.

“It has ridiculed the Australian scene and I think that’s why a lot of us are suffering,” says Spice.

Many rushed to defend Raygun against the onslaught.

Others, while acknowledging that there are still questions about her qualifications and performance, say the global harassment has undermined any attempt at a fair analysis of what happened in Paris.

Gunn has always been a dancer – albeit jazz, tap and ballroom dancing at first – but it was her husband and coach Samuel Free who introduced her to the world of breakdancing when she was 20.

She says it took years for her to find her place in the male-dominated scene.

“There were times when I would go to the toilet crying because I was so embarrassed by how bad I was at it,” she told Guardian Australia ahead of the Olympics.

But over time, Gunn became the face of breakdancing in Australia – a top-ranking B-girl and an academic with a PhD in the cultural politics of sport.

And at an Olympic qualifying tournament in Sydney last October, in which 15 women from across Oceania took part, Raygun emerged victorious and booked her ticket to Paris.

Like Gunn, breakdancing was perhaps a surprising candidate for the Olympics. Street dance, born in the cultural melting pot of the Bronx in the 1970s, quickly became a global phenomenon.

And in recent years it has caught the attention of Olympic officials who are desperately trying to attract a new and younger audience.

Some argued that breakdancing did not deserve Olympic attention, while others insisted that such a competition failed to capture the essence of breakdancing and would only further separate the art form from the street culture from which it originated.

All eyes were on the event in Paris to see if the Olympic Committee’s gamble would pay off.

From the moment the final B-Girl Battle at the Olympics ended, it was clear that Breaking had indeed captured worldwide attention – or more accurately, Raygun.

Rumors and criticism about her performance spread like crazy, especially on the Internet.

Gunn received a flood of violent messages and 50,000 people signed an anonymous petition apologizing.

She was accused – without evidence – of having manipulated her way onto the biggest stage in the world at the expense of other talents in the Australian hip-hop scene.

Some people spread the conspiracy theory that she founded the governing body for the qualifying tournaments in Oceania and the lie that her husband – also a well-known breaker and qualified referee – was on the jury that selected her.

Australian fact-checking organisations and AUSBreaking, the national breaking organization, quickly tried to correct the record, but that could not stop the flood.

Then there were those who claimed she mocked and appropriated hip-hop culture.

“It just looked like someone was playing with the culture and didn’t realize how culturally significant it was,” Malik Dixon told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

In a series of statements, AUSBreaking stressed that the judges were “trained to maintain the highest standards of impartiality” and that there was not a single Australian on the nine-member jury for the Oceania qualifiers.

And although AUSBreaking has had many “interactions” with Raygun since its inception in 2019, at no time has it held a leadership position or been involved in “decisions regarding events, funding, strategy, judge selection or athlete selection.”

Te Hiiritanga Wepiha, a New Zealand judge on the Oceania qualifying panel, refuted all “crazy theories” on Instagram and said Raygun won fair and square.

“All of us judges talked about how she was going to get beat up (at the Olympics), absolutely beat up… She knew it was going to be tough, so it was actually brave of her,” Wepiha – also known as Rush – said in a livestream

Some of the country’s most successful athletes and top Olympic officials also loudly defended Gunn.

“The petition has stoked public hatred without any factual basis. This is appalling,” said Matt Carroll of the Australian Olympic Committee.

Gunn herself had previously stated that she could “never” beat her strong competitors and therefore wanted to “move differently, be artistic and creative”.

In a video posted at the center of the public storm on social media, Gunn added that she took the competition “very seriously.”

“I worked my ass off preparing for the Olympics and gave it my all. Really.”

She was just trying to “bring a little joy,” she said. “I didn’t realize that it would also open the door to so much hate, which was, frankly, pretty devastating.”

Some in the Australian hip-hop community admit that the reaction to Raygun’s number initially elicited “a giggle” – but quickly spiraled out of control.

All unanimously condemned the level of abuse, ridicule and misinformation that Raygun and the Australian B-girl community in general had been subjected to.

But beyond that, feelings are somewhat divided.

Many B-girls say that Raygun’s performance is not up to par in Australia.

“When I first saw it, I was so embarrassed,” says Spice, who retired from breakdancing years ago.

On any other stage, Raygun would have been encouraged and supported to “go for it,” says Spice, but the people representing the country have to be of a certain standard.

“It’s the Olympics, for God’s sake!”

“There’s this thing in hip-hop: You either go up or you go back… You have to know your place.”

However, she stresses that the “bullying is simply disgusting” – and that many, including herself, hesitated to speak out against it for fear of increasing Gunn’s suffering.

But the impact of the controversy on local Australian B-girls has also been “devastating,” Tinylocks told the BBC.

Like several other people the BBC spoke to, she did not want to publish her full name because the level of abuse circulating left much to be desired.

B-girls’ videos are being trolled, their DMs are being flooded with insults and threats of violence, young dancers are being bullied at school and many now feel unsafe practicing in public.

“It is unacceptable to tell us to be positive and helpful while we ourselves are being harmed… (We) are allowed to be angry,” she said in a statement.

Tinylocks – who fought Raygun herself – believes Gunn simply had a terrible day, but says there are questions about her preparation and routine that need to be answered.

“We know you are capable of more… Were you set up for success?”

According to Wepiha, Gunn’s victory in qualifying reflects the size of the “tiny” breaking scene in Australia and the even smaller public and government support for it.

“I mean, we actually had to bring people out of retirement to get the numbers right,” he said.

“The scene is so small.”

Others say there were rules that might have further narrowed the talent pool – such as the requirement that potential qualifiers be members of AUSBreaking and hold a valid passport, according to rules put forward by the World Dance Sport Federation.

AUSBreaking did not respond to BBC questions about how Raygun is selected, the financial support the company receives or how the company searches for the best breaking talent in the country.

But Steve Gow, the group’s secretary and long-time B-Boy Stevie G, tells the BBC that Australia’s size and isolation is hindering the growth and development of the scene.

Because of the great distance from other, larger hip hop communities abroad, it can be difficult to learn from them – both in terms of time and money.

“It can be very narrow-minded,” he says.

As if to prove his point, he regularly stops to greet almost everyone who enters the Red Bull competition, where he serves as a judge.

He insists that the quality of breakdancing in Australia is still high.

Ultimately, the community is deeply hurt by the world’s reaction.

They feel like breaking is not really understood and that people have moved on without knowledge or context.

“It’s a big disappointment because they’re not talking about the winners… they’re all talking about Raygun memes and they don’t even see their full performance,” Samson Smith – a member of hip-hop group Justice Crew – told Network 10.

However, many hope that there might still be a silver lining on the horizon.

“It could actually attract enough attention to raise resources,” Wepiha said.

“Ultimately, Australia has the most famous Olympian of 2024 and she could actually save the scene here.”