- Rachael “Raygun” Gunn is retiring from breakdancing after facing hate and misinformation online.
- Gunn suffered ridicule and false rumors after her performance at the Paris Olympics.
- Fracture will not be part of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Olympic breakdancer Rachael “Raygun” Gunn is retiring from the sport after facing a barrage of hate and misinformation online.
The 37-year-old Australian became a laughingstock this summer after her viral performance at the Paris Olympics, which included moves that were compared to a kangaroo’s dance and a baby’s dance.
B-girl was eliminated in the round-robin stage of the women’s competition, losing to USA’s Logistx, France’s Syssy and Lithuania’s Nicka.
Gunn said the reaction to her performance was so “disturbing” that she had decided to give up break dancing.
“I would still compete, for sure, but that seems like a really hard thing to do now, to approach a fight,” Gunn told 2DayFM, a Sydney radio station, on Wednesday.
“I still dance and I still break, but it’s like in my living room with my partner,” she said.
Gunn added that the scrutiny she faced had been “really upsetting” and “impossible to process”.
“The level of scrutiny that’s going to be there, and people are going to film it, and it’s going to go online, and it’s just not going to mean the same thing, it’s not going to be the same experience because of everything that’s at stake. she said.
In the face of rumors and viral fame
Amid criticism of Gunn’s routine, the offender was also subjected to false rumors about how she earned her spot in the games, including a rumor that her husband and coach, Samuel Free, was a judge at her qualifying event.
This was dismissed by AUSBreaking, which said in a statement that Free was “not a member of the selection panel or judging committee” as that would have been a “conflict of interest”.
Gunn went viral after the Paris Olympics. Harry Langer/DeFodi Images via Getty Images
Gunn’s performance also prompted comments from celebrities such as Adele and Jimmy Fallon.
Speaking at her concert in Munich in August, Adele said Gunn’s performance was her “favourite thing that’s happened at the Olympics”.
“If you haven’t seen it, please leave the show and Google it because it’s LOL,” Adele said.
Fallon, meanwhile, poked fun at the Olympian’s performance during a skit on “The Tonight Show.”
Speaking to 2DayFM, Gunn said he appreciated the more positive feedback he had received.
“That’s what gets me through, people saying, ‘You’ve inspired me to get out there and do something I’ve been too shy to do, you’ve brought joy, you’ve brought laughter, we’re so proud. from you,” she said.
“And just wonderful beautiful things that people have written, and that’s what I stick to.”
The break will not be part of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics. The decision had nothing to do with the controversy surrounding Gunn’s performance; The International Olympic Committee announced the lineup of sports to be featured in the 2028 games in 2022, People reported.
Gunn competes in the 2023 WDSF Oceania Breaking Championship. Mark Kolbe/Getty Images
Joycelyn Wilson, a faculty member in black media studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology, told Fortune that the decision to include sports in the 2024 games gave the industry a much-needed boost of “cultural recognition and validation.”
“Having that Olympic seal for any sport changes the game,” Born Barikor, chairman of UK organization Breaking GB, told Fortune.
It’s not clear what’s next for Gunn, though she seems to have plenty of other career paths to pursue.
Gunn is an academic and lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, where she focuses on research on the “cultural politics of fracture”, according to her faculty profile. She earned her PhD in cultural studies in 2017.
In 2013, she wrote an article about how the institutionalization of the Olympics would affect the Australian hacking scene.
During an interview with Nova 96.9 Sydney, an Australian radio station, earlier this week, Gunn said she had turned down several offers to appear on the reality show after the Olympics.
Representatives for Gunn did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.