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Raygun retires from breaking after 'upsetting' Olympic backlash / Photo: © AFP
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Raygun retires from breaking after 'upsetting' Olympic backlash
Australian breakdancer Rachael "Raygun" Gunn has announced her retirement from competition, citing a "really upsetting" backlash following her performance at the Paris Olympics.
Raygun, 37, became something of a global laughing stock after her unorthodox routine, including kangaroo hops and imitating a sprinkler, failed to impress the judges at the Games.
Her moves were copied on late-night talk shows and her unfashionable green tracksuit was mercilessly parodied online.
Conspiracy theories abounded to explain how the university lecturer had even made it on to the Australia Olympic team.
Gunn said the intense scrutiny had been "really upsetting", and she had decided to pull the plug on her breakdancing career.
"I'm not going to compete any more," she told Australian radio station 2DayFM on Wednesday.
"I was going to keep competing for sure, but that seems like a really difficult thing for me to do now.
"The level of scrutiny that's going to be there. People will be filming it, it will be going online, it's just not going to be the same experience."
Gunn had previously spoken out against the "pretty devastating" hatred unleashed towards her after the Olympics.
"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," she said in a video message after the Games.
While many lampooned her performance on social media, Gunn won support from others, including her fellow Australian Olympians and even the country's prime minister.
Raygun said she would continue to dance, just not in competition.
"I mean I still dance, and I still break. But, you know, that's like in my living room with my partner," she said.
"Dancing is so much fun, and it makes you feel good. I don't think people should feel crap about the way that they dance.
"If you get out there, and you have fun on the dance floor then just own it."
Raygun did have the last laugh in September when she was briefly elevated to the top of the World Dance Sport Federation (WDSF) rankings.
The WDSF named her the number one women's breakdancer based on winning the Oceania Championship, one of only a few events held that counted towards the rankings in the run-up to the Olympics.
The sport of breaking made its Olympics debut in Paris, but will not feature at the next Games at Los Angeles in 2028.
K. Berger--BTZ
