The 2024 Paris Olympics are now (sadly) behind us, but people are still talking about several of the mot viral moments that happened during the games. That includes the breakdancing performances from Rachael “Raygun” Gunn , the Australian breaker who left spectators wondering how she qualified to compete in the games at all. But now, Raygun is speaking out , along with addressing the conspiracy theories about her history with the sport.
Raygun’s Olympic performances immediately went viral.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by WDSF Breaking for Gold (@_breakingforgold)
Unfortunately, that wasn’t because of her talent — it was because people couldn’t believe she’d earned the right to compete in the first place. She became a meme overnight, with people online mocking her dance moves and digging up parts of her past to try to explain more about how she made it all the way to the Olympics.
Raygun maintains that she has been the ’top ranked Australian B girl’ for the past two years.
In an interview with Australian news outlet Channel 10, Raygun acknowledged that she “can’t control how people react” to her performances.
“In the last year, I have trained my hardest,” she said (via ESPN). “I have really put my body through it, put my mind through it. But if that’s not good enough for someone, what can I say?”
She called claims that she earned her spot at the Olympics unfairly ‘conspiracy theories.’
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rachael Gunn (@raygun_aus)
“That was really upsetting, because it wasn’t just people that didn’t understand breaking and were just angry about my performance,” she said. “It was people that are now attacking our reputation and our integrity. And none of them were grounded in any kind of facts.”
She was upset by the ‘hate’ aimed at her.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rachael Gunn (@raygun_aus)
She called the negative energy that people threw her way during the Olympics “alarming.”
“It was really sad how much hate that it did evoke,” Raygun said. “And a lot of the responses is also just due to people not being very familiar with breaking and the diversity of approaches in breaking.”
We may not see her perform again for a while.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rachael Gunn (@raygun_aus)
Raygun told Channel 10 that she probably won’t compete again in the near future, but that doesn’t mean she’s going to let the backlash she received dictate how she lives her life from here on out.
“I would rather much focus on the positives out of this, and the positive responses and the joy that I brought people,” she shared.
