Viral breakdancer Raygun says she will no longer compete after the backlash at the Olympics

The break dancer Raygunwhich made headlines at the 2024 Olympic Games in Parissays she will no longer compete in breakdancing after a backlash following her Olympic debut performances.

Raygun, whose real name is Rachael Gunn, recently told the Australian radio show “Jimmy & Nath for breakfast” on 2DayFm that while she continues to dance and break, she will no longer do it professionally and would not compete in breaking at any other Olympics if the sport were to return.

“I still break, but I don’t compete anymore. No, no,” said the 37-year-old Gunn.

Gunn had previously taken first place in the Oceania Championship and represented Australia at the break at the Paris Games, where the sport made its debut also.

She ultimately lost her three round-robin fights by a score of 54-0, and her breaking moves, including one inspired by a kangaroo’s jump, spawned countless memes and jokes on social media.

Viral Olympic break dancer Raygun defends her performance

Gunn, who is also a university lecturer, has a PhD in breakdancing and said she would have wanted to continue her groundbreaking career before the Olympics.

“I definitely wanted to keep competing, but yeah, that seems really hard for me to get into a fight right now,” Gunn continued. “I still dance and I still break, but you know what, that’s like being in my living room with my partner.”

Gunn earlier spoke out in August about the ‘hate’ and the backlash she received after her Olympic performance, saying she continues to try to deal with the excessive amount of attention she has received since.

Viral Olympic break dancer Raygun says ‘hatred’ over her performance is ‘devastating’

“I felt like I just had no control over how people saw me or who I was, who my partner was, my story,” Gunn said. “And so it was very disturbing for a number of different reasons. And people are still not listening, and people are still not reading.”

Gunn said despite everything, she tries to focus on positivity and encourages others to keep dancing.

“That’s what gets me through. You know, the people who have said, ‘You inspired me to go out and do something that I was too shy to do. You’ve brought joy, you’ve brought laughter.’ We’re so proud of you,’ and just really beautiful things that people have written and that’s what I hold on to,” Gunn said.

Viral breakdancer Raygun says she will no longer compete after the backlash at the Olympics originally appeared on goodmorning.com