We all remember the main character that graced our FYP towards the end of Paris 2024 Olympics. No, not pommel horse guy, or the muffin man, I’m talking about Australia’s best female breaker. You may even have dressed up as her for Halloween.
For the first time, breakdancing — officially known as breaking — made a cameo at the summer Olympics in an effort to appeal to a ~younger audience.~ And so I guess it’s thanks to International Olympic Committee that the world was introduced to Olympian Rachael Gunn, aka Raygun. Despite losing all of her matches by scoring zero points against any of her rivals, the internet has made her a breakout breaking star thanks to her sweet moves, such as my personal favorite: the kangaroo.
However, the breakdancer recently announched that she will no longer compete after going viral from her Olympics performance.
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“I’m not going to compete any more, no,” Raygun told Sydney radio. “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,” she continued. “It’s been really upsetting. I just didn’t have any control over how people saw me or who I was.”
While Raygun arguably provided some of the best memes of 2024, it’s understandable to feel disheartened by the conspiracy theories that began to circulate in response to the competition. One of which accused her of essentially stealing her spot in the Olympics that attracted 50,000 signatures before it was removed at the request of the Australian Olympic Committee.
“But I just try and stay on the positives and that’s what gets me through,” she added. “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.'”
Who Is Raygun?
The 36-year-old professional breaker, known as B-Girl Raygun, is also a lecturer at Sydney’s Macquarie University with a Ph.D in Cultural Studies. She is literal a doctor of breakdancing. Her research focuses on hip hop culture and the intersection of gender stereotypes in breaking and similar dance styles. And in case you didn’t trust her credentials as a breaker due to the unfortunate clip that circulated online, she did represent Australia at the World Breaking Championships in 2021, 2022 and 2023. She even won last year’s Oceania Breaking Championships, which is what secured her position as her country’s Olympic b-girl.
She didn’t advance to the later rounds of the competition but certainly left it all out on the field. “The younger competitors are great in their strength, fitness, and explosiveness. But the older ones bring a different level of maturity to the dance,” she told CNBC, leading up to the competition. “My specialty is style and creativity, not dynamics or power moves like many other dancers.”
One thing is for sure, she accomplished what she set out to do: “I hope people are still wowed by what I bring since it’s something different.”
