In August, Australian B-girl Raygun stole the show during the inaugural Olympic breaking event, prompting a million memes and some genuine outrage. Her goofy moves were parodied on The Tonight Show while a Change.org petition falsely accused her of manipulating her way into the Olympics. Following the controversy, she shared an Instagram video defending herself, noting that she “worked my butt off” to prepare. Now, she’s apologizing to the breaking community for the attention her widely panned performance brought.
Appearing on the Australian nightly news program The Project, Raygun — also known as Rachael Gunn — was asked to respond to a comment from an Australian B-boy that her performance “made a mockery of the Australian scene.” In response, Raygun grimaced, telling presenter Waleed Aly, “It is really sad to hear those criticisms, and I am very sorry for the backlash that the community has experienced.” She added, “But I can’t control how people react.” She went on to point out Australia’s lack of resources for breakdancing and again emphasized how hard she had trained for the event. “Learning power moves in your mid-30s is not easy, let’s just say that,” she joked. “I have really put my body through it. But if that’s not good enough for someone, what can I say?”
Gunn also spoke about her gratitude for the ways that the breaking community — particularly in Australia — had stood up for her during the controversy. Reflecting on her journey to the Olympics, she said, “I knew my chances were slim. 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 gonna understand my style and what I was gonna do,” she said. “I had to go with my strengths. In the judging criteria, you’ve got execution, technique, originality, vocabulary, range and repertoire of movement, and musicality. So I thought I’d focus on these last three, but it just wasn’t enough to tip the scales. The odds were against me, that’s for sure.”
Raygun also confirmed that she doesn’t plan on breaking competitively again anytime soon. “It was my medicine and then it turned into my source of stress, so I’m really happy that it gets to go back to being my medicine,” she said. I can’t wait to read the academic paper she will inevitably write about this whole thing.
