Raygun reacts to Olympic performance hate: 'I gave my all'
Raygun says she worked her butt off preparing for the Olympics and is "devastated" by the backlash her dance received.
Rachael 'Raygun' Gunn is breaking her silence following her widely mocked breakdancing performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The 36-year-old represented Australia in Olympic Breaking alongside her male counterpart, 16-year-old Jeff 'J-Attack' Dunne.
Raygun lost all three rounds of her round-robin battles. Scores of people around the world mocked her breaking moves, calling them amateur and not on par with what one would expect at the Olympics.
Some even claimed their toddlers could do a better job, while others questioned how she made it to the Olympics in the first place.
READ MORE HERE: Olympic spectators come down hard on Australian breakdancer
Raygun, who has a PhD in cultural studies, says she is devastated by the hate her performance has received.
"I just want to start by thanking all the people who have supported me. I really appreciate the positivity and I'm glad I was able to bring some joy into your lives - that's what I hoped," the breakdancer said in a video shared on her Instagram page.
Raygun says she "didn't realise that that would also open the door to so much hate which has frankly been pretty devastating".
"While I went out there and I had fun, I did take it very seriously. I worked my butt off preparing for the Olympics and I gave my all, truly. I am honoured to have been a part of the Australian Olympic team and to be part of Breaking's Olympics debut."
Raygun Husband
Raygun also addressed "allegations and misinformation floating around" about how she made it to the games. Some people have accused Raygun and her husband Samuel Free of manipulating the competition in Australia to get to the Olympics.
A petition, which garnered more than 50,000 signatures before it was taken down, also claimed that Raygun started the governing body that ended up running the qualifier. It further claimed that her husband, who is also a breakdancer, was part of the "selection panel".
The claims have all been proven false.
Raygun directed people to a statement by the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) on the allegations. The AOC called the petition "misleading".
"The AOC is particularly offended by the affront to our chef de mission, Anna Meares. The Australian team chef de mission played no role in the qualification events nor the nomination of athletes to the AOC Selection Committee... It is disgraceful that these falsehoods concocted by an anonymous person can be published in this way," the statement read.
Raygun also clapped back at reports that she received ZERO points at the competition.
"A bit of fun fact for you, there are actually no points in breaking. If you want to see how the judges thought I compared to my opponents, uhm, you can actually see the comparison percentages across the five criteria on Olympics.com. All the results are there," the university lecturer said.
Raygun ended her video by saying she will be taking some pre-planned downtime in Europe for a few weeks before returning to Australia.
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Social media users took to the comments section of Raygun's video to express further disappoint in her performance.
"Honest criticism is not hate. Attacking honest feedback as hate is gaslighting and an attempt to demean those who give honest feedback and criticism with name calling and accusations," one person wrote.
Another user commented: "What a lack of honest self reflection. Pretty childish."
A third wrote: "I think people would respect you more if you just owned up to your performance ..rather than defending just own up to the fact that hey, maybe you weren’t prepared and shouldn’t have been at the Olympics."
Some also told Raygun that she should be more opened to feedback.
"You’re a uni professor right? So you would know that when you fail a student and provide your feedback it does not come from a place of hate. You fail them and provide feedback because no matter how hard the student tried, their work wasn’t good enough to receive the marks to pass. This situation, your performance at the Olympics and the fact that you got 0 points, is not too dissimilar."
Despite the harsh comments, many in the breakdancing community, including South African dancer Courtnae Paul, showed her some love.
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Main image credit: Instagram/@raygun_aus