Aussie Breakdancer Responds to ‘Devastating’ Social Media Ridicule After Paris Olympics

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Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Warner Todd Huston

Rachael “Raygun” Gunn has finally replied to the tidal wave of criticism she has suffered in the wake of her much-derided breakdance routine at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Gunn, 36, has been skewered on social media for claiming to have a “PhD in breakdancing” and for being a university professor of “cultural politics” at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, where she researches “Breaking, street dance, and hip-hop culture; youth cultures/scenes; constructions of the dancing body; politics of gender and gender performance; ethnography; the methodological dynamics between theory and practice.”

Her PhD thesis, “Deterritorializing gender in Sydney’s breakdancing scene: a B-girl’s experience of B-boying,” focused on “the intersection of gender and Sydney’s breaking culture.”

But, despite her academic attention to the topic, her actual routine was ridiculed and seemed to have taken the genre from “street” to a white, suburban teen’s birthday party in the suburbs. Gunn’s moves, which she says she invented just for her Olympics debut, featured imitations of a snake, a kangaroo hop, and even a lawn sprinkler.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, she lost every Olympic contest 18-0.

The ridicule was almost immediate, with social media users piling on with memes and mocking. Along with other accusations, some even said that her whole life had been a trolling of the breakdancing world and that with her routine and “PhD in breakdancing,” she was engaging in ridicule of breakdancing herself.

Others claimed that Gunn, as an academic, was part of the decision-making process for the Aussie breakdancing team, and some wondered if she voted for herself over other candidates. However, the country’s Olympic committee assured the public that Gunn was “simply an athlete who competed in the qualifying event which she won” and had no part in the organization or decision-making process.

Amid the growing tide of attacks, Gunn is now speaking out in a video, according to Australia’s News.com.

“Hi everyone, Raygun here. I just want to start by thanking all the people who have supported me, I really appreciate the positivity and I was glad I was able to bring some joy into your lives — that’s what I hoped,” she said at the top of the video.

“I didn’t realize that that would also open the door to so much hate, which has frankly been pretty devastating,” she admitted.

“While I went out there and had fun, I did take it very seriously. I worked my butt off preparing for the Olympics, and I gave my all, truly,” she said, adding, “I’m honored to have been a part of the Australian Olympic team and to be part of Breaking’s Olympic debut. What the other athletes have achieved has just been phenomenal.”

She then addressed some of the accusations being floated on social media. She said, “In regards to the allegations and misinformation floating around, I’d like to ask everyone to please refer to the recent statement made by the AOC as well as the posts on the Ausbreaking Instagram page as well as the WDSF Breaking for Gold page.”

“Bit of a fun fact for you: there are actually no points in breaking. If you wanted to see how the judges thought I compared to my opponents, you can actually see the comparison percentages across the five criteria on Olympics.com. All the results are there,” she continued.

She then pleaded for people to stop “harassing” members of her family and the general Australian breakdancing community.

“But I’d really like to ask the press to please stop harassing my family, my friends, the Australian breaking community, and the broader street dance community,” she said.

“Everyone has been through a lot as a result of this, so I ask you to please respect their privacy<‘ she said before telling the press that she’ll answer questions when she is back from her time away on vacation.

“Thanks, everyone,” Gunn concluded.

Breakdancing has been eliminated as an Olympic sport for the coming 2028 Games, but that decision was made long before Gunn’s performance in Paris.

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