Raygun withdraws from competition break after Olympic backlash

by Junna Base November 7, 2024

Australian competitive athlete Rachael “Raygun” Gunn, who shot to viral fame after her stunning performance at the Paris Olympics, plans to retire from competition, she told a Sydney radio station on Wednesday.

The 37-year-old became the subject of widespread ridicule after her unorthodox Olympic program, which included a move in which she mimicked a kangaroo hop, leading to a wave of internet memes and clips. She didn’t win any of her three wrestling matches at the 2024 Games, where breaking made his Olympic debut.

Gunn said she originally planned to continue competing but changed her mind after the backlash was, she said, “disturbing.”

“I still take breaks but I don’t compete,” she said on 2DayFM’s The Jimmy & Nath Show. “I won’t be competing anymore, no. … I definitely wanted to keep competing, but it seems really difficult to take on a fight now.”

She added that she still dances and takes breaks, “but it’s like in my living room with my partner.”

Raygun performs at the Paris Olympics. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Gunn has previously spoken about her experience and defended how she qualified for the Olympics. Following her appearance, theories about her qualifications circulated online, including a petition on Change.org claiming she had rigged the process. The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) called for the petition to be removed and AOC chief executive Matt Carroll defended Gunn, calling the petition “disgraceful” and saying it spread misinformation.

Gunn won the QMS Oceania Championships in Sydney, an automatic Olympic qualifying competition with 15 breakers. She previously said she knew “the odds were stacked against her” if she competed in the Olympics.

“The conspiracy theories were completely wild,” Gunn said. “And it was really disturbing because I felt like I had no control over how people saw me or who I was, who my partner was, my story. And so it was really disturbing for a number of reasons.”

Breaking is not scheduled to be on the Olympic program at either the 2028 Games in Los Angeles or the 2032 Games in Brisbane, Australia. As for what’s next for Gunn, it appears her Paris dance will be her last official dance. She holds a position as a university lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney and said she is working on “a few projects that are going on behind the scenes”.

“It’s all a bit of the same vibe of trying to bring out more positivity, trying to encourage people to dance and have fun and be creative and be themselves, be their authentic selves, as well Whatever that looks like,” she said.