Raygun gets the medal for most mentions in Mark Knight cartoon

She has become the talk of the world. An Olympian and an overnight sensation. A living meme. Her work is dominating television news bulletins, social media, news websites, American late night TV chat shows and has even risen to the dizzying heights of being mentioned by Adele during one of her concerts. Yes, the woman who brought the Olympics to a standstill and redefined “breaking” is Australia’ own breakdancing maverick*, B-girl, Rachael Gunn, the Raygun.

The Paris Olympics were Australia’s most successful Games ever. Finishing 4th on the medal table, we won a record 18 gold out of a total of 53 medals. For two weeks we delighted in our athletes competing against the best in the world and beating them.

First it was Grace Brown winning the women’s cycling time trial around the streets of Paris. Then our women swimmers, Ariarne Titmus, Mollie O’Callaghan, Kaylee McKeown and their teammates went crazy in the pool, winning gold after gold.

Cam McEvoy won gold in the men’s 50m freestyle sprint. The Fox sisters dominated the kayaking, our skateboarders cleaned up too, as did Matt Wearn in the laser class sailing. Did I mention Aussie Nina Kennedy winning the pole vault? Then an incredible silver medal for Jess Hull in the women’s 1500m run.

To achieve these results takes years of training, family support, talent and financial support, but the hard work paid off and our athletes delivered. Australians were justifiably proud.

Then, as the Paris Games were coming to an end, one of the last competitions, breaking, newly introduced to the Olympics, had its moment in the sun. The moves these dancers put on are extraordinary and the athleticism quite amazing. The flips, tumbles, spinning like a top, all to a rhythmic dance beat, derived from street culture and rap, would make for a fascinating contest.

And then it happened.

It’s one of those seismic* moments, tectonic plates* shift in the upheaval, and we can’t believe what we are seeing.

Australia’s entrant in the breaking contest was Rachael “The Raygun” Gunn. She came out and did it her way. There were no gymnastics, nor acrobatics, instead the Raygun went for a point of difference: she rolled around on the ground, hopped like a kangaroo and did the “sprinkler*”.

The judges, pokerfaced, did not appreciate her unique approach and scored her zero. Those who witnessed it thought it might be a joke, but the Raygun was a PhD* in breaking culture at Macquarie University in Sydney. Apparently she qualified as Australia’s best female breaker. She was serious. This called for a cartoon, I thought!

I did not want to join the social media pile-on that started after Raygun’s performance. Some of it was very funny, some of it unfair and some of it plainly harsh.

But what I did want to do was make an observation on the phenomenon* of Raygun. I had watched Australia’s Chef de Mission*, the former champion Olympic cyclist Anna Meares, hold a final press conference on Australia’s performance at the Games. She was emotional as she talked about the success of the team, and being someone who knows the hard work that is involved, was brought to tears with happiness for our athletes and our best ever performance at an Olympics.

The cartoonist in me saw this teary moment could be taken a different way. Maybe Anna was crying for another reason? I thought that despite all our gold, silver and bronze medals, something had knocked all that success off the front page. The Raygun. All people were talking about was the Raygun and her performance.

And so I drew Anna Meares at her press conference. Through tears and sobs she recounted our best Olympics ever, she lauded* all our gold medallists … but all Australia would be remembered for was the Raygun and her kangaroo-hopping across the Olympic stage. I drew her doing her stuff.

If we measured the metrics of Raygun’s hits on social media around the world, then she was by far the number one topic for comment of the Games. A gold medallist!

POLL

GLOSSARY

• maverick: who thinks and acts independently of and differently from others
• seismic: having very great and usually damaging effects
• tectonic plates: parts of Earth’s surface that move in relation to each other
• phenomenon: remarkable person or thing, an extraordinary occurrence or circumstance
• PhD: Doctor of Philosophy, the highest level of postgraduate achievement
• Chef de Mission: translated directly from French, the “head of mission” is responsible for co-ordinating selection, preparation and supervision of the team
• lauded: highly praised, celebrated, admired

EXTRA READING

Aussie Olympic heroes come home

Paris bids ‘au revoir’ to Olympics

Faster, higher, stronger – younger!

QUICK QUIZ

1. Which famous singer interrupted her concert to talk about Raygun?
2. What was Raygun’s score at the Olympics?
3. What was the subject of Rachael Gunn’s PhD?
4. Who is Australia’s Chef de Mission?
5. How many gold medals did Australia win and where did we place on the medal tally?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Be the cartoonist
Create a cartoon inspired by Mark’s comment that Raygun really is a kind of “gold medallist”. Use his ideas in the story to help you.

Time: allow at least 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Visual Communication Design, Visual Arts

2. Extension
Is the Olympic Games just about winning? Use the information in the story and your own ideas to write a detailed and convincing response to this question.

Time: allow at least 25 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Health and Physical Education

VCOP ACTIVITY
What happens next?
Imagine this story is part of an animated series made up of three cartoons. The three cartoons tell the complete story and this cartoon is only Part 1. Think about what the rest of the story could be and draw the next two cartoons that tell the story.

Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Visual Arts, Visual Communication Design, Critical and Creative Thinking