Viral Olympic B-girl Raygun says she's done with competitive breakdancing

Updated: 8 Hours ago Published: 9 Hours ago

Breakdancing will not be an Olympic sport in 2028. And even if it were, the woman who is arguably the most famous B-girl in the world wouldn't be attending.

Rachael Gunn, the Australian breakdancer better known as Raygun, said this week she would no longer compete in elite competitions after she was widely ridiculed for her unorthodox performances at this year's Paris Games.

During an appearance on Australian radio show “The Jimmy & Nath Show” on Tuesday, Gunn was asked if she would ever want to compete in the Olympics again.

“No,” she laughed. “No! NO!”

The 37-year-old university lecturer said her days of competitive breakdancing were over.

“I still take breaks, but I don’t compete,” she said. “I will no longer compete. No. No.”

That wasn't the plan for the Olympics, Gunn said. From 2021 to 2021, she represented her country at the World Breaking Championships. 2023 and qualified for the Paris Games by winning the Oceania Breaking Championships in October 2023.

In Paris, however, Gunn lost to her opponents with 54:0 points and did not make it past the first round. Her unconventional dance moves, particularly one where she imitated a kangaroo, went viral as Gunn became a punchline for late-night TV hosts like Jimmy Fallon and many others.

More than 57,000 people signed a change.org petition calling for an investigation into the selection process that allowed Gunn to enter the competition. The site ultimately took down the petition after it was “flagged for misinformation and reviewed in accordance with our community guidelines,” the site said in a statement.

In September, Gunn apologized to the Australian breakdancing community for the backlash she suffered following her performance.

“Yes, I wanted to continue competing [after the Olympics] Certainly,” Gunn said during her radio appearance this week, “but that seems [like a] It's really difficult for me to approach a fight now. I mean, I still dance and I still break. But you know, it’s like being in my living room with my partner.”

She added: “I think the level of control that will be there, and people will film it and it will go online, and it just won't mean the same.” It won't be the same experience because everything is on the game is up to snuff.”

On Thursday, Gunn appeared on Australian talk show “The Project” to clarify that she is not retiring from the sport, as some news outlets had reported.

“Not retired,” she said. “I never said the word 'retire'.”

Instead, Gunn said she would no longer compete in “elite competitions and the Olympics.”

“I’ll still dance,” she said. “I’ll still go to community jams. I’ll probably still go and participate in a community jam and things like that.”