Australian breakdancer Rachael Gunn has gone viral following her wacky debut at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Gunn, who competes under the name Raygun, uniquely wow’ed the in-person and online audience with her routine in the round-robin stage of the women’s breakdancing competition on Friday, Aug. 9. She went up against 16-year-old Team France dancer Sya Dembélé.
Unfortunately, the Australian breakdancer made her Olympic debut without earning a single point for her dance moves. Although the dancer wasn’t a medal-winning Olympia, she managed to earn quite a name for herself by sparking memes. She was also heavily criticized on social media.
“Thanks to Australia, breakdancing will be banned in the next Los Angeles Olympics,” one person on X (formerly Twitter) declared.
Another X user stated, “It’s an amazing and athletic sport. Her performance was an absolute disgrace. She looks like a drunk obnoxious person pretending to break dance with that sad woke routine.”
However, not all remarks were criticism. A fellow X user was more optimistic when sharing their reaction to the Australian breakdancer’s Olympic routine. Say what you will about Raygun,” they wrote. “She’s literally the only breakdancing from the Olympics that I have seen. I didn’t even know it was in the Olympics. Not all winners wear a gold medal.” +
An X user also thought the Australian breakdancer may have had other career aspirations in mind while breakdancing at the 2024 Olympic Games. “She knew exactly what she was going for, to become Michael Scott [from The Office] at the Olympics.”
Australian Breakdancer Rachael Gunn Calls Out Her Haters Following Olympic Dance Criticism
Following her less-than-stellar Olympic Games debut, Australian breakdancer Rachael Gunn called out her haters while speaking to reporters.
“All my moves are original,” Gunn stated. “I was always the underdog and wanted to make my mark in a different way.”
Despite the online criticism, Raygun doesn’t seem to be letting the comments get to her. She revealed how happy she was to even represent her country. “I guess maybe being a bit older, I know how rare this opportunity is and I wanted to take the chance to wear the green and gold,” she stated.
She went on to add, “I don’t know why some of the other girls didn’t want to wear their kit. It was a real moment of pride for me to wear the Australian uniform, I was particularly excited for this shirt to have the Indigenous print on the arms.”