Rachael Gunn, the Australian Olympic breaker who went viral for her unique moves at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games this summer, has apologized to the breaking community for the backlash it received after her performance.
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“I am very sorry for the backlash that the community has experienced, but I can’t control how people react,” Gunn said in an interview with the Australian network television show The Project.
Gunn, also known as “Raygun,” received stark criticism online for her dance moves, including the “kangaroo move,” which involved her hopping from side to side as her wrists were near her abdomen during her performance at the Olympics.
“It’s been a pretty wild ride,” Gunn, 37, told The Project. “I definitely have my ups and downs, my good and bad days, but it has been honestly so amazing to see the positive response to my performance.”
During the interview, Gunn revealed that she sought out mental health support and went off social media in the aftermath of her Olympic debut.
Still, Gunn defended her right to represent Australia in the Olympics. When asked whether she thought she was the best female breaker from her home country, Gunn said that her record spoke for itself. In 2020 and 2021, she ranked as Australia’s top B-girl, which is a common term for a breaker. In 2023, Gunn won the Oceania Breaking Championships, which qualified her for the 2024 Olympics.
At the Paris Games, Gunn lost all three rounds against her opponents, and did not win a single point across all three battles. Gunn, who is also a university lecturer, said that many people who criticized her online are likely not familiar with breaking, adding that her breaking style is “just a different approach.” She added that she had been nervous to participate in the Olympics.
“I knew that I was going to get beaten, and I knew that people were not going to understand my style and what I was going to do,” she said. “The odds were against me, that’s for sure.”
Gunn told The Project that she wants to avoid the spotlight for now.
“I would much rather focus on the positives out of this, and the positive responses and the joy that I brought people,” Gunn said. “It’s going out there and just having fun and going as hard as you can in the face of, you know, losing.”
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