For the first time since her performance at the Olympics went viral, Australian B-girl Rachel “Raygun” Gunn sat down for an interview to discuss the overwhelming backlash she received online during the 2024 Summer Games.
“It is really sad to hear those criticisms, and I am very sorry for the backlash that the community has experienced,” the 37-year-old told Australia 10 News in the interview, which aired Wednesday. “But I can’t control how people react.”
In the first — and potentially only — appearance of Breaking at an Olympic Games, Raygun’s performance, which she defended by stating, “All of my moves are original,” baffled spectators as she failed to earn a single point. She lost 18-0 in each of her battles against three competitors: U.S.’s Logan Edra (Logistx), Lithuania’s Dominika Banevič (Nicka), and France’s Sya Dembélé (Syssy).
When asked if she genuinely thought she was the ‘best female breaker in Australia,’ Gunn — a breakdancing professor at Macquarie University in Sydney — responded with a shrug, “Well, I think my record speaks to that.” She pointed to her being the “top-ranked” breaker in Australia in 2020, 2022, and 2023. “The record is there, but anything can happen in a battle.”
Last month, an online petition gathered more than 50,000 signatures amid unfounded accusations that Gunn, who qualified for the Olympics by winning last year’s Oceania Breaking Championships, had cheated her way into the Olympics by manipulating the selection process.
“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 attacking our reputation and our integrity. And none of them were grounded in any kind of facts. People still don’t believe the truth, but… I think that’s just going to be part of our reality, unfortunately.”
Gunn, who has yet to return to Australia, dismissed the accusations as “conspiracy theories,” calling them “just awful.”
Gunn has previously addressed the criticism on social media, sharing an Instagram post from the Australian breaking team quoting her: “Don’t be afraid to be different.”
“Go out there and represent yourself,” Gunn was quoted as saying. “You never know where that’s gonna take you.”
“Creativity is really important to me. I go out there, and I show my artistry. Sometimes it speaks to the judges, and sometimes it doesn’t. I do my thing, and it represents art. That is what it is about,” Gunn added during an August 10 press conference, per ESPN.
