A class act: Breaker swaps lectern for Olympic 'throw down'

MELBOURNE — The athletes battling for breaking gold at the Olympics will bring an array of tricks to Paris, but Australia's Dr Rachael Gunn may be the only one armed with a PhD in the sport's culture.

The 36-year-old B-girl known as 'Raygun', a portmanteau of her name, completed a thesis in 2017 on the intersection of gender in Sydney's breaking scene, while training to become one of the nation's top dancers.

The Macquarie University lecturer will soon take time out from academia to compete at the Place de la Concorde, where breaking will make its Olympic debut some 50 years after emerging from the streets of the Bronx in New York.