World number one breaking star Raygun explains why she's retiring from the sport

Australian viral breaking star Rachael ‘Raygun’ Gunn has officially retired from competition, citing the intense backlash she received following her performance at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Gunn, 37, said she had initially planned on competing following the Games, but said the public backlash had been incredibly "upsetting" and had destroyed any motivation she had to carry on competing.   

"I just didn’t have any control over how people saw me or who I was," she told local radio station 2DayFM on November 6, as reported by the BBC. “I think the level of scrutiny that’s going to be there, and people will be filming it, and it will go online."

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It's perhaps an unsurprising move as Gunn was on the recieving end of some pretty serious backlash following the Paris Games, which included violent messages, demands for an apology and false accusations regarding Gunn and her husband's role in getting her spot secure at the Olympics, per the BBC.

It comes following news in September that 'Raygun' was actually ranked number one in the world in the discipline despite not scoring any points at the Games in Paris. However, the World Dancesport Federation clarified the situation.

The federation said the ranking methodology is based on an athlete's last four competition scores and doesn't include the Olympic Games. Due to the exceptional circumstances of there being no ranking events between December 2023 and the Olympics, many athletes only competed in one event.

In 'Raygun's' case, her first-place finish at the Oceania continental championships in October 2023 earned her 1,000 points, making her the top-ranked dancer.

Her newfound fame and ranking have had their perks. The unexpected 'star' of the Olympics has signed with an influencer talent agency, following the Aussie breakdancers' viral performances at the Games.

She is now looking to capitalize on her newfound fame by working with Born Bred Talent, an Influencer Marketing Agency that represents some of the biggest social media stars in Australia and New Zealand.

Marketing and public relations expert Max Markson told the Daily Mail that due to her "brand recognition" she could be courting offers from some of the world's biggest companies.

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Mr Markson said the going cost for an endorsement deal for American brands such as McDonald's or KFC is about $500,000 (US$320k/£255k/€295k) and he expected she could easily sign "three to five contracts," earning the dancer millions on the back of her divisive performance.

Despite the International Olympic Commission doing their best to remove videos of Raygun's performance from the internet due to copyright infringement, it has been viewed millions of times all around the world and continues to be widely shared and memed. 

So who is Rachael Gunn, and how did she get here? 

Rachael Gunn was born in Hornsby, New South Wales, and grew up dancing, specialising in jazz and ballroom. She would take up breaking in her "mid 20s", as the South China Morning Post reported.

Immersed in the culture, in 2017 she completed her PhD on 'the intersection of gender and Sydney's breaking culture'. At this time she was competitively breaking and worked her way up to be Australia's number 1 ranked B-Girl in 2020.

She participated in the World Breaking Championships held in Paris in 2021 and in Seoul in 2022. She qualified for the Paris Games through the Oceania Championships in October 2023.

"I think a lot of people had doubted my ability to do it and maybe thought I was getting too old to be able to stay on top," she said, as reported by the South China Morning Post. "But I just kept pushing hard, I want to get better, and I want the scene to grow and get better."

Despite being highly experienced in the discipline, Gunn scored no points in her preliminary phase run at the Games. Feeling a little dwarfed by the skills of her rivals, she opted to do something a little different with her performances, taking inspiration from Australian wildlife, including snakes and kangaroos.  

"I was never going to beat these girls on what they do best, the dynamic and the power moves, so I wanted to move differently, be artistic and creative because how many chances do you get in a lifetime to do that on an international stage?" she said, as the Independent reported.

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"I was always the underdog and wanted to make my mark in a different way," she concluded.