Rachael Gunn

Dear Rachael,

I doubt amidst the tens of thousands, possibly millions of comments that you will read this. I’m sure there are already many positive comments out there, but it does seem that your Olympic performance has drawn out the very worst in many people, so I wanted to write this to share some thoughts which are hopefully encouraging.

When I read the hate and the people who were mocking your performance I thought that I had better go and watch it. My first thoughts were that I certainly could not give the performance that you did, and also that it was entertaining and fun. I could see that you had worked incredibly hard on that performance and that you really did put your heart, soul and energy into it. I can also see that it was highly . to the people watching, and it really was unique and special.

The olympics is hard because it tries to do something very difficult and to rank people. This is easy to do in a 100m race, but much harder for things that are more artistic and my limited understanding of breakdancing (crikey, I can hardly even do line dancing!) leads me to think that it is somewhat of an art form and thus has a large element of individuality and interpretation. Hardly a surprise then that your performance was controversial.

After the news had broken and I’d read many of the stories of hate, and facts that I don’t believe are accurate, I also watched a video of you explaining the effect that a lot of the controversy and criticism has had. I thought that you were very honest in what you shared. I understand that some of the hate especially must be hard to bear. I believe that people have a right to say what they feel, but I often think that the way they say it and the level to which ridicule, criticism and even hate are amplified online is difficult to take. I know it’s too much to hope for, but I’d like to think I could be in a world where people think before opening their mouths or keyboards on the effect that their words might have on the other person. There are a number of simple principles that you can try and apply including the question of would I say this directly to the person.

I guess I wanted to put myself in the position of imagining that I was speaking directly to you, and to try and express how I might feel about your performance, knowing that I don’t really know a huge amount about you, nor the world of breakdancing.

So, Rachael. You are a very talented individual. To be able to dance at all at a professional level is inspiring to me. I can see that you have done lots of dance forms and so you clearly have great versatility. I can see that your talents also include your academic work and so you are clearly an intelligent and hard working person. Are you qualified to express yourself through the medium of breakdance, most certainly. Are you qualified to represent your country at the Olympics? Again, yes. I can see you have won many ranking events and come through a fair selection process to compete for your country. I found your dancing entertaining and fun to watch, much more than many other dancers. Did I feel that your performance was the most technical of them all, no, but did I enjoy it, yes. More than that, in watching you speak subsequently you strike me as a very genuine, honest and lovely person and so that has in a funny way made me even more impressed at your dancing. I also love that you *wanted* to make your performance unique and special and something that represented your country.

I totally agree with your sentiment that you can go and be different and represent yourself. You did. And I’m proud of you.

Sure, some people might not have enjoyed your performance. That’s fine. People can say that, and discuss that online. But as usual, the internet shows its very worst in the spreading of false information and the amplification of those that want to spread excessive ridicule and hate.

I’m not really able to meaningfully say sorry on behalf of the internet, but I’m going to anyway.

Sorry.

Thank you for being you, for inspiring many, for taking a risk, for being entertaining.

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