Rachel Gunn, better known as Raygun, is looking back at the Olympic performance that made her an overnight viral sensation.
The 38-year-old Australian break dancer is the subject of of Netflix’s new documentary Untold Raygun: Breaking Badly, which started streaming on Tuesday (September 1).
In the documentary, she revisits the intense mockery surrounding her 2024 Paris Olympics routine, acknowledges some of it was, “cringe,” and addresses false claims that she somehow cheated her way into the Olympic Games.
Raygun looks back at her viral Olympic Routine
Breaking debuted at the Paris Olympics in 2024and Raygun quickly became the event’s most recognizable competitor after her unconventional moves went viral.
She said she felt likek she brought “shame and embarrassment” to her country and says the online backlash made her feel as if her life “was crumbling around” her.
Raygun also did not score a single point with the judges for her performance.
Since then, she has been able to reflect more on the situation and told People at the end of August that her experience made her “resilient.”
Raygun addresses claims she cheated to qualify for the Olympics
During the whole debacle, theories began emerging online suggesting that Raygun had a “fix” to qualify for the Olympics. Online users began to say she and her husband Samuel Free were part of the selection committee.
“This misinformation is getting a lot of traction,” her husband said in the doc, adding, “I wasn’t a judge. I was never on any selection committee.”
Even some of her fellow dancers confirmed she won her spot fair and square.
One dancer, Flix, told People she was “offended” and “embarrassed” by Raygun‘s performance but also said she was “the best B-girl on that day” and won her spot on Team Australia.
How the backlash affected Raygun
The dancer admitted she was struggling with anxiety already even before the Games.
“It was a few months before, and yeah, I mean, look, it threw things off, definitely, but also it eventually did help and calmed that anxiety,” she shared with People.
“But to be honest, it was all part of the chaotic sundae that I was eating between the elite sports gym at 6 a.m. with people that’ve been athletes since they were three, training again in the afternoon and night, do the recovery, worry about your diet, do the 6 a.m. drug test because they’re knocking on your door. It was just chaos, it was crazy, but to be honest, I think [the medication] probably gave me a good little baseline to deal with what the world threw at me next.”
Two years later and she says her mental health is doing “good.”
Raygun continued, “But I don’t take that for granted. It’s something that I’m constantly checking in on, and if I need to pull back from things, if I need to just take it easy at home, then I do that.”
She previously responded to criticism after the Olympics.
Where is Raygun now?
She hasn’t returned to elite 1-on-1 competition and has instead been participating in smaller local events with her crew. She’s also moved away from academia and is doing public speaking as well as looking toward creative projects. She say she hopes the documentary opens doors for whatever comes next.
Untold Raygun: Breaking Badly is streaming now on Netflix.
She won’t be returning for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
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