Australian Breakdancer Raygun Calls Out 'Alarming' Backlash over Her Olympic Performance: 'It Was Really Sad'

Mar. 15, 2025

Rachel Gunn.Photo:Elsa/Getty

Elsa/Getty

“It is really sad to hear those criticisms and I am very sorry for the backlash that the community has experienced,” Gunn, 37,tellsAustralia 10 News in a new interview, which aired Wednesday. “But I can’t control how people react.”

Gunn, 37, has yet to return to Australia since the viral performance, according to the news channel.

“It was really sad how much hate that it did evoke,” Gunn says in the interview. “And a lot of the responses is also just due to people not being very familiar with breaking and the diversity of approaches in breaking. The energy and vitriol that people had was pretty alarming.”

Rachel Gunn.Elsa/Getty

“I think my record speaks to that,” Gunn says, pointing to her being the “top-ranked” breaker in Australia in 2020 and 2022, and 2023. “The record is there, but anything can happen in a battle."

Rachel Gunn.Ezra Shaw/Getty

Ezra Shaw/Getty

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“That was really upsetting, because it wasn’t just people that didn’t understand breaking and were just angry about my performance,” she says. “It was people that are now attacking our reputation and our integrity. And none of them were grounded in any kind of facts. People still don’t believe the truth, but … I think that’s just going to be part of our reality, unfortunately.”

In anInstagram postlast month, Gunn said despite the “devastating” criticism she received over her performance, it was still “an honor and a privilege to be one of sixteen women from around the world competing in breaking’s debut at the Olympics.”

source: people.com