Rachael “Raygun” Gunn has finally faced the music in her first sit down interview since the furore erupted over her controversial Paris Olympic performance.
Channel 10’s The Project landed the world exclusive after the Aussie break dancer made headlines around the world for all the wrong reasons.
Debate has raged around the world since her performance where she failed to score in any of her three battles at the Olympics.
At the Olympics, the judges compared the performers over five different techniques — technique, vocabulary, originality, execution and musicality.
Gunn’s routine included moves which mimicked a snake and a kangaroo, and she even did the sprinkler as she focused on originality, vocabulary and musicality.
Gunn’s fashion was also criticised as the other competitors came out in street clothes, while she wore her Australian Olympic tracksuit and cap.
While the wild aftermath of the performance saw the Australian Olympic team rally around her with mental health support and the suggestion to get off social media immediately as the storm kicked off, but the reaction still broke through.
“I didn’t understand the scale of it,” she told Waleed Aly on The Project on Wednesday night.
“I did preview some comments and I was like, ‘Oh, no’, and this kind of sick feeling started coming out. I was like, ‘Oh, goodness! What has happened?’”
Gunn also said it was a crazy to be in the eye of the storm with media chasing her down the street.
“That was really wild,” Gunn said. “If people are chasing me, what do I do? But that really did put me in a state of panic for a while after that and I was quite nervous being out in public because I just didn’t know what was safe, if anyone was going to recognise me, how they were going to respond to seeing me.
“And it was pretty nerve-racking for a while there.”
But as the debate continued to swirl long after her final of three battles, the furore reached ridiculous levels.
Raygun was panned across social media, as well as by celebrities including Adele and Jimmy Fallon.
Even DJ Fatboy Slim stated “we would have given you 10 out of 10, Rachael” alongside a hilarious video comparing her moves to those seen in his film clip for mega hit Praise You.
But Gunn has also copped a mountain of criticism with some claiming her performance was the reason it wasn’t picked up for the 2028 LA Games — which is not the case the US city chose flag football and squash to make their debuts, while lacrosse, T20 cricket, baseball and softball all returned to the program.
However, others have claimed her performance may stop the sport from earning another berth in the future.
As for the Fallon sketch, Gunn said she had “mixed emotions” although she admited she hadn’t seen it because “I don’t think I’m in a place yet to watch it, but I will watch it at some point.”
However, she added all the reaction “feels like a really weird dream that I’ve been having that I’m going to wake up from at any moment. Like, what is life right now?”
Gunn said she hadn’t watched back her performance from the Olympics, but added “that’s not unusual for me”, suggesting she doesn’t watch her battles back.
But it was the criticism that stung Gunn.
“It was really sad, how much hate that it did evoke,” she said.
“There’s been a portion of very angry and awful responses, not only attacking me but attacking my husband, attacking my crew, attacking the breaking and street dance community in Australia, my family. The energy and vitriol that people had was pretty alarming.”
Aly didn’t throw softballs either, questioning Gunn about the savage reaction she copped from within the breaking community itself.
Aly quoted Aussie hip hop legend Spice, who said: “I feel like it’s just pushed our scene in Australia into the Dark Ages.
“It made a mockery of the Australian scene and I think that’s why a lot of us are hurting.
“In hip-hop, we have this thing – you step up or you step off. You need to know your place.”
Aly asked if there was merit to the criticism.
“It is really sad to hear those criticisms,” Gunn responded. “I am very sorry for the backlash that the community has experienced.
“But I can’t control how people react.
“Unfortunately, we just need some more resources in Australia for us to have a chance to beat world champions.
“Historically, unfortunately, we haven’t had the best track record of winning World Championships, so I don’t think that’s just on me.
“But in the last year, I have trained my hardest, I have trained so hard — learning power moves in your mid-30s is not easy.
“I have really put my body through it, put my mind through it. So, you know, but if that’s not good enough for someone, what can I say?”
Gunn did have some people come to her defence including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who said: “Good on her and a big shout out to her. That is in the Australian tradition of people having a go. She’s had a go representing our country and that’s a good thing.
“The Olympics is about people participating in sport. That’s a good thing and Raygun had a crack.
“Whether (athletes have) won gold medals or just done their best, that is all we ask for. It’s the participating that is really important.”
However, there was a wave of criticism and unfounded accusations cast at the 36-year-old Macquarie University academic, who researches the cultural politics of breaking.
It included questions and even conspiracy theories about her qualification for the Olympics where she won the Oceania Championships in October 2023, as well as about funding — the AOC confirmed athletes “received no Federal Government Funding” — and a vitriolic petition that earned 50,000 signatures before it was taken down.
Gunn said the conspiracy theories that flowed around her battles “were just awful”.
“That was upsetting because it wasn’t just people that didn’t understand breaking and were just angry about my performance, it was people that are now attacking our reputation and our integrity,” she added.
“And none of them were grounded in any kind of facts. And, obviously, they’re still circulating. People still don’t believe the truth, but we do live in a different world now, so I think that’s just going be part of our reality, unfortunately.”
Gunn did speak to some of the conspiracies, including the judging panel for the Oceania Championships, saying: “I don’t think any of them had judged in anything I had been in before.”
And it was no secret that Gunn was going to be up against it, despite being Australia’s top ranked B-girl for 2020, 2022 and 2023.
Even Te Hiiritanga Wepiha, who was a New Zealand judge on the Oceania qualifying panel, told the BBC that while Gunn had won fairly, “All us judges talked about how she was going to get smashed, absolutely smashed (at the Olympics).”
Gunn herself was under no illusions that she was going to be up against it.
“I knew my chances were slim,” she told The Project.
“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 going to understand my style and what I was going to do.
“I wanted to bring out some Australian moves and themes. You know, I love our Olympic mascot, B-K, the boxing kangaroo, and I wanted to show that. And that’s the wonderful thing about breaking — you can take inspiration from any source.
“I had to go with what I was good at, I had to go with my strengths.”
Gunn also said the Closing Ceremony was special as she danced and was embraced by her other Australian teammates.
She admitted she “wasn’t sure I was even going to go to the Closing Ceremony” adding it was “nice to have the support of all the other Olympians there”.
But Gunn said would take a break from Breaking “for a while.
“It’s been a bit of a process to try and start dancing again,” Gunn said.
“That’s actually been tough. 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.
“I can kind of finally feel free again, so I’m looking forward to breaking, but, no, I don’t think I’ll compete for a while.”
It might not be the last we see of Gunn either with reports she signed with a talent agency and reportedly caught the attention of I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! producers.
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