Australia’s Rachael Gunn, often known as B-Lady Raygun, competes throughout the Spherical Robin Battle on the breaking competitors at La Concorde City Park on the 2024 Summer time Olympics on Aug. 9, in Paris. Her efficiency drew laughs and criticism and now Gunn is responding.
Frank Franklin/AP
cover caption
toggle caption
Frank Franklin/AP
Raygun, the Australian breakdancer who acquired ongoing backlash for her efficiency within the Paris Olympics, stated she is retiring from competing.
Raygun, whose actual identify is Rachael Gunn, stated on Australian radio earlier this week that she doesn’t need to endure the criticism that may include future performances probably being recorded and posted on-line.
“It’s just not gonna mean the same thing,” she stated. “It’s not going to be the same experience because of everything that’s at stake.”
Breaking debuted as an Olympic sport over the summer time. Through the competitors in Paris, Gunn failed to attain any factors, shedding 18-0 in every of her three round-robin battles.
Reactions to Gunn’s efficiency ranged from declarations of her strikes being eccentric, to questions on her place within the sport as a white girl in academia, given the dance fashion’s roots within the early New York hip-hop scene. Her routine was made into memes and spoofed on late evening tv.
“It’s surreal and it’s still impossible to process,” she stated.
Talking on Australia’s 2DayFM The Jimmy and Nath Present, Gunn quashed the prospect of a future Olympic efficiency. “Say in four years’ time, would you do the Olympics again,” requested present co-host Nathan Roye. Gunn shortly stated no.
She added, “It was really upsetting because I felt like I just didn’t have any control over how people saw me — or who I was, who my partner was, my story.”
Although breaking will not be part of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Gunn stated previous to the backlash, she did plan on persevering with to compete after the Paris Olympics have been over.
“That seems a really difficult thing for me to do now, to approach a battle,” she stated. “I mean, I still dance and I still break, but that’s, like, in my living room with my partner.”
Gunn stated she has relied on memes and optimistic messages from followers to steadiness out the negativity.
Regardless of not medaling in Paris, Gunn has represented Australia within the World Championships thrice and received the Oceania Breaking Championships final 12 months.
She stated she is engaged on different tasks that “encourage people to dance and have fun and be creative and be themselves.”
