Rachel ‘Raygun’ Gunn hits back in first interview since Olympics controversy
Infamous Australian breakdancer Raygun has broken her silence in a vulnerable interview for the first time since the Olympics controversy.
Rachael ‘Raygun’ Gunn has broken her silence, saying she knew she would be beaten at the Olympics as soon as she qualified for Paris.
In her first interview since the b-girl went about as viral as viral gets, the academic and Olympian says she is still not comfortable rewatching her performance, or a parody clip from the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
“As soon as I qualified, I was like, oh my gosh, what have I done? Because 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,” The 37-year-old breakdancer told Waleed Aly on Network 10’s The Project.
Raygun knew a storm was brewing soon after her performance.
Soon after competing, a representative from the Australian Olympic Commission told her it was blowing up online, so she avoided the internet and was not fully aware of the storm.
“Fortunately, I got some mental health support pretty quickly and I also went off social media, I went off the internet,” she said.
“It’s just still pretty hard to process.”
A reporter chasing her through Paris the day after the competition made her realise how big the story was.
There was also a Jimmy Fallow sketch of Raygun’s performance: She says she hasn’t watched the clip.
“I think the moment where I thought, ‘okay, this is wild, this is now out of control,’ was when I saw (there was a sketch) sketch on Jimmy Fallon,” Raygun said.
“I don’t know whether to hug him or yell at him.
“Because what a platform he ended up giving me, honestly. I haven’t actually seen the sketch because I don’t think I’m in a place yet to watch it, but I will watch it at some point.”
She spoke about seeking out mental health support soon after the viral storm and said she didn’t know whether she would be safe being in public.
A month on from her Olympic performance, the Sydneysider is still avoiding the internet.
While she said there was positive feedback, about her dancing bringing joy to people, she also copped lots of hate.
“It was really sad, how much hate that it did evoke. And a lot of the responses, though, is just people not being very familiar with breaking and the diversity of approaches in breaking.”
Channel 10 host Waleed Aly read critical comments from an Australian breakdancer and hip hop figure Spice.
“It made a mockery of the Australian scene and I think that’s why a lot of us are hurting. In hip-hop, we have this thing - you step up or you step off. You need to know your place,” Spice had previously said.
Raygun said “it was sad to hear those criticisms”, and she was “very sorry for the backlash the community has experienced”.
“But I can’t control how people react. Unfortunately, we just need some more resources in Australia for us to have a chance to beat world champions,” she said.
An interesting twist in the Raygun tale is the fact she is an academic in the field of breaking.
The Anglo Australian has written academic works about how breakdancing emerged from racially marginalised communities, and turning the art form into a sport excludes those communities.
“Australia puts up a b-girl and it ends up being a white woman instead of someone from those marginalised communities. Do you think there is an irony there that’s fair to comment upon?”, Aly asked.
Raygun said Australia’s second and third qualifiers for the Games would have been white women.
“There’s a number of white b-girls in Australia, actually. I don’t know what it is about us white women and being attracted to breaking. I think even if it went to the second or third, that it still would have been a white b-girl representing.
“That’s something that we’re always reflecting on - how can we get more people into breaking? That’s something that we’re always thinking about, to be honest.”
Raygun also spoke of conspiracy theories about how she “manipulated the selection process”.
She said they were “awful”.
“That was, that was really, that was upsetting, because it wasn’t just people that, you know, didn’t understand breaking and were just angry about my performance,” she said.
“It was people that are now attacking our, you know, our reputation and our integrity.”
She said the theories weren’t grounded in facts but were continuing to circulate.
Aly asked whether she “genuinely” believes she’s the “best female breaker in Australia”, with Gunn pausing before replying: “I think my record speaks to that”.
When asked how she got into the Olympics, she said she won the Oceania championships, which were a direct qualifier.
“I was the top ranked Australian b-girl in 2020, and 2022, and 2023, I’ve been invited to represent at how many World Championships Paris, Korea, you know” she said.
“So the record is, is there...but anything can happen in a battle. You know, it’s always about what happens on the day. That consistency shows, you know my level.”
Raygun could have a future on the screen, with TV networks reportedly in a battle to secure the Olympian a spot on their shows, according to Yahoo Lifestyle.
“The future of one of the world’s most talked about Australians, Raygun, is currently being negotiated with multiple TV offers,” a source told the masthead.
“They are looking for ‘exclusive-network-deals’ that could be 12 to 24 months long. Blocking out other opportunities from competing programming.”
The segment follows Gunn’s extended stay in Europe following the Olympics, where she made a surprise video appearance at the Logie Awards.
“I just want to say congrats to all the Logie nominees and best of luck tonight,” Gunn appeared on the big screen saying.
“Please feel free to pull out one of my signature moves in celebration.
“Have fun and look after each other.”
Gunn is a cultural studies academic who qualified for the Olympics at the Oceania qualifier in October 2023.
“All my moves are original … Creativity is really important to me. I go out there and I show my artistry,” Gunn previously said.
“Sometimes it speaks to the judges, and sometimes it doesn’t. I do my thing, and it represents art. That is what it is about.”
Originally published as Rachel ‘Raygun’ Gunn hits back in first interview since Olympics controversy
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