After receiving lots of criticism for her performance in the Paris Olympics, breaker Rachael “Raygun” Gunn said she could not bring herself to compete once more. This means that her trademark kangaroo bounce will never be seen on a competitive platform again.
During the Olympic debut of breaking at the Place de la Concorde, university lecturer Gunn was widely ridiculed after losing all three of her round-robin matches with a combined performance score of 54-0. She was mocked for everything from her dance moves to her green official team uniform.
Gunn told Sydney radio: “I’m not going to compete any more, no.”
She added: “I was going to keep competing, for sure, but that seems really difficult for me to do now to approach a battle… Yeah, I mean I still dance, and I still break. But, you know, that’s like in my living room with my partner …. It’s been really upsetting. I just didn’t have any control over how people saw me or who I was.”
No more breaking for the 2028 Olympics
The Olympic programme for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles no longer includes breaking. Gunn said that if the dance event was added back to the Games, she would not think about coming out of retirement.
Meanwhile, an online petition that claimed that Gunn had manipulated the qualification process to get her Paris spot was taken down at the request of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) after gaining 50,000 signatures.
After everything that has happened, Gunn said: “But I just try and stay on the positives and that’s what gets me through…The people that have like (said), ‘you have inspired me to go out there and do something that I’ve been too shy to do. You’ve brought joy, you’ve brought laughter. You know, we’re so proud of you.’”
Source: CNN