Australia’s Rachael Gunn, often known as B-Woman Raygun, competes through the Spherical Robin Battle on the breaking competitors at La Concorde City Park on the 2024 Summer season Olympics on Aug. 9, 2024, in Paris, France. Her efficiency drew laughs and criticism and now Gunn is responding.
Frank Franklin/AP/AP
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Frank Franklin/AP/AP
Rachael Gunn, the Australian breakdancer who goes by Raygun, apologized for the backlash her Paris Olympic Video games efficiency introduced towards the breakdancing neighborhood.
“I can’t control how people react,” Gunn mentioned in an interview with the Australian present affairs present, The Mission, throughout which she additionally touched on the horrifying hate and assaults she, her household and buddies have confronted since her competitors.
Gunn went viral in July after she broke out a number of unorthodox strikes through the breakdancing competitors within the last weekend of the Paris Video games. Her strikes, which included the kangaroo hop and writhing on the ground, shortly grew to become memes and was impersonated by comic Rachel Dratch throughout Jimmy Fallon’s monologue to open The Tonight Present.
The efficiency drew laughs, but additionally stunning ranges of criticism, hate and vitriol, Gunn instructed The Mission throughout her interview.
“It definitely has been tough at times,” she mentioned. Gunn mentioned given the intense response from individuals, she went off social media and bought psychological well being assist fairly shortly.
Some on social media questioned whether or not Gunn’s efficiency was a hoax or a part of some challenge that the college lecturer was participating in. Gunn researches dance and gender politics and has studied a variety of dance types, in response to her Olympics bio. Different critics mentioned Gunn benefited from nepotism or a rigged competitors.
Gunn, who beforehand responded to this on Instagram, mentioned through the interview that she received her spot to Paris honest and sq. after competing within the 2023 Breaking Oceania Championship.
Main as much as Paris, Gunn mentioned she was very nervous going up towards rivals from all over the world.
“I knew I was going to get beaten and that no one was going to understand my style and what I was going to do,” she mentioned. “The odds were against me, that’s for sure.”
She added that she trained hard and has been a breaker for years. And, she said, the country should take Australia’s performance in breakdancing in Paris as a sign to invest in the sport: “We want extra sources in Australia to beat world champions. We have not had the perfect observe report” in international competitions.
For now, Gunn mentioned she is staying away from competitions for awhile.
