Australian breaker Rachel “Raygun” Gunn, who quickly became one of the most talked about Olympians at the Paris Games following her performance, said much of the heavy criticism of her skills was due to a lack of knowledge of the sport.
“The energy and vitriol that people had was pretty alarming,” Gunn told “The Project,” a show on Australia’s Channel 10 in her first interview since the Olympics.”It was really sad how much hate that it did evoke and a lot of the responses, though, was also due to people not being very familiar with breaking and the diversity of approaches in breaking.”
Gunn, 37, failed to win any of her three round-robin battles with a combined score of 54-0 at the Paris Games, where breaking made its Olympic debut. Her performance immediately sparked a wave of memes and internet fodder, particularly her dance moves mimicking a kangaroo when she held her arms close to her body and kicked her leg in the air.
Back home, the Australian media and other breakers quickly criticized Gunn’s moves.
“I am very sorry for the backlash that the community has experienced, but I can’t control how people react,” Gunn said. “Unfortunately, we just need some more resources in Australia for us to have a chance to be world champions. … We haven’t had the best track record of winning world championships, so I don’t think that’s just on me.”
Gunn said an AOC media liaison warned her about the immediate online criticism after her Olympic performance, causing her to take a break from social media. She said it “put me in a state of panic” and she wasn’t comfortable going out in public after Australian media started criticizing her.
Theories over how Gunn qualified for the Olympics began circulating online, and a Change.org petition alleging she manipulated the qualification process garnered over 45,000 signatures before the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) requested its removal.
AOC chief executive Matt Carroll called the petition “disgraceful” and said it spread misinformation based on opinions.
“The conspiracy theories were just awful,” Gunn said. “That was upsetting because it wasn’t just people (who) didn’t understand breaking and were just angry about my performance. It was people now attacking our reputation and our integrity. None of them were grounded in any kind of facts.”
Gunn secured her spot in the Paris Games after winning the QMS Oceania Championships in Sydney, an automatic qualifying competition with 15 breakers. She said she knew “the odds were against me” when competing in the Olympics.
“I knew 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. I love our Olympic mascot, BK, the boxing kangaroo, and I wanted to show that. … I had to go with what I was good at. I had to go with my strengths.”
Gunn added that she doesn’t plan to compete “for a while” to stay out of the spotlight and is focused on the positive responses to her Olympic performance.
“It has been honestly so amazing to see the positive response to my performance. I never thought that I would be able to connect with so many people in such a positive way.”
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(Photo: Harry Langer / DeFodi Images via Getty Images)