Australian Breakdancer Raygun Calls Social Media Hate Over Olympic Performance ‘Pretty Devastating’
Breaking won't be part of the '28 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Australian Olympic breaking athlete Rachael 'Raygun' Gunn poses during a portrait session in the Sydney central business district on April 17, 2024 in Sydney, Australia.
Viral breakdancer Rachael “Raygun” Gunn has spoken out following her performance at the 2024 Summer Olympics, which received significant backlash at the inaugural breakdancing competition earlier in August. (The men's breaking competition, won by Canada's Phil Wizard, was significantly less controversial.)
Raygun took to Instagram on Thursday (Aug. 15) to defend how serious she took competing in breaking at the Olympics and called the hate “pretty devastating.”
“I didn’t realize that would open the door to so much hate,” she began. “Which is frankly been pretty devastating. While I went out there and I had fun, I did take it very seriously. I worked my butt off preparing for the Olympics and I gave my all, truly.”
Raygun continued: “I’m honored to have been part of the Australian Olympic team and to be part of breaking’s Olympic debut.”
Still, fans didn’t care for her explanation, and Gunn’s comments section was filled with backlash. “There needs to be investigation on how you got on Olympics,” one person wrote.
As far as the “allegations” and alleged “misinformation” going around, Raygun directed fans to read the Australian breaking team’s official statement.
“We condemn the global online harassment and bullying of Raygun,” they wrote in her defense. “The pressure to perform on the Olympic stage is immense, especially against the opponents in her particular group. We stand in solidarity with Raygun.”
The World DanceSport Federation came to Gunn’s defense and offered her support from an officer regarding her mental health.
“We offered [the] support of our safeguarding officer,” a statement from the organization’s general secretary read. “We are aware of what has happened, especially on social media, and definitely we should put the safety of the athlete, in this case, mental safety in first place. She has us as a federation supporting her.”
Adele threw her support behind Raygun and admitted the breaking routine made her “very, very happy.”
“I can’t work out if it was a joke, but either way it has made me very, very happy. And me and my friends have been shitting ourselves laughing for nearly 24 hours. But I just wanted to know if you’ve seen it,” she said at a recent show.
Dr. Dre, however, seeminglyblasted Raygun without name-dropping her. “I did not like that. It’s so many great breakdancers, I don’t know why they had this particular person doing that,” he said to Entertainment Tonight. “It was funny, I got some laughs out of it, but what the f—? There are incredible breakdancers out right now — I don’t know how that happened.”
Watch Raygun’s response video below.
