Craig Foster: Sporting legend is blasted for telling fans they’re un-Australian if they criticise Raygun’s Olympic breakdancing: ‘Stop gaslighting us’

Socceroos star Craig Foster has hit out at sports fans who criticised Australian breakdancer Raygun’s performance at the Paris Olympics, prompting a furious response.

Gamer Rachael Gunn has become the butt of jokes online after her routine made her a viral sensation, but for all the wrong reasons. Foster responded fiercely to the backlash in a social media post on Monday.

“I think this is great. Australians shouldn’t have to let other people down because they do things differently,” he wrote.

“We get around them. And we lift them up. That’s what we learn as team athletes, anyway.

‘Raygun stepped forward and did her thing in front of the world, her own way.

‘Not everyone can say that in life. I had the courage to be different…well done to her. And to the @AUSOlympicTeam.

‘Very, very cool.’

His post on X was accompanied by footage of Australian Olympians treating Gunn like a cult hero during an impromptu performance just before the closing ceremony.

Gunn was the butt of jokes when she became a viral sensation for her routines at the Games, including her strange kangaroo-like stance (pictured)

Foster called her effort “really, really cool” and said Australians should be lifting her up rather than putting her down.

But if Foster thought his comments would change the minds of Australian sports fans about Raygun’s “shameful” action, he was mistaken.

“I disagree. She has robbed a legitimate youngster of an Olympic chance,” wrote one commentator who felt Australia should have had better breakdancers who could have represented the country in Paris.

“This is the Olympics, not a talent show. Only the best get to compete, it’s embarrassing and disrespectful to take away another Australian’s dream,” fumed another.

“Why are you trying so hard to manipulate us? We saw what we saw! To be an ‘Australian’ icon Raygun should have a sense of humour about herself and acknowledge she’s a bit of a s**t but like Eddie the eagle she tries anyway. But she doesn’t seem to realise it,” wrote a third.

“She’s an idiot who shouldn’t be in the Olympics. A complete collapse of sports governance. But if her job was to show the world that breakdancing should never have been an Olympic sport in the first place, she succeeded,” wrote another angry sports fan.

His stance infuriated sports fans, who accused him of trying to make them doubt what they saw when Gunn represented Australia.

The university lecturer did not receive a single point from the jury in Paris

Gunn also received support from Anna Meares, Australia’s chef de mission at the Paris Olympics, who said the 36-year-old was the country’s best female athlete and blamed the criticism on sexism.

“What has happened on social media with trolls and keyboard warriors, and picking up on those comments and giving them airtime, is just plain disappointing,” Meares said.

“Now look at the history of what we as female athletes have experienced in terms of criticism, belittling, condemnation and simple comments like ‘they shouldn’t have been there,’” she said

A hundred years ago, in the run-up to Paris 1924, Australia sent a team of 37 athletes – not a single woman.

‘A hundred years later, we have 256 women represented here.’