Rachael Gunn, the Olympic breaker who went viral for her weird dance performance at the Paris Games last month, has apologized to the break dance community for the backlash she brought upon it.
In an interview with Australian current affairs show “The Project” broadcast Wednesday, Gunn, widely known as Raygun, said she is “very sorry for the backlash that the community has experienced” as a result of her performance.
The 37-year-old university lecturer did not register a single point across her Olympic battles against breakers from the United States, France and Lithuania in August, losing 18-0 in all three rounds. Her weird moves during her performance which consisted of a kangaroo hop, a backward roll and various contortions with her body while lying or crawling on the floor and facial gesture and moves that the audience and judges seem not to understand or score!! Gunn said her breaking style is “just a different approach” to the sport.
People’s Comments and Confusion
A lot of reactions from people surfaced online as they called her performance unappealing and uncalled for !
Gunn’s breaking at the Olympics drew attention from across the globe. Singer Adele took time out of her concert in Munich to question whether the whole thing was a “joke,” while actress Rachel Dratch imitated her on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
In Wednesday’s interview, Gunn said she hasn’t seen the Fallon sketch, but mentioned that she doesn’t know “whether to hug (Fallon) or yell at him, because what a platform he ended up giving me.”
“It kind of feels like a really weird dream that I’ve been having that I’m going to wake up
She claimed she won the Oceanic championships which qualified her for Olympics although people also doubted the credibility of the judges after her performance at the Olympics.
“I knew that 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,” she said. “The odds were against me, that’s for sure.”
Gunn told “The Project” that she won’t be participating in any breaking competitions for a while, as she wants to avoid the spotlight.
“I would much rather focus on the positives out of this, and the positive responses and the joy that I brought people,” she said. “It’s going out there and just having fun and going as hard as you can in the face of, you know, losing.”
Breakdancing made its Olympic debut at the 2024 Paris Games but will not feature in Los Angeles in 2028.
