Rachael Gunn, also known by her breakdancing name Raygun, went viral during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, but the Australian is garnering even more attention after she was recently filmed busting a move or two in front of adulating fans.
Gunn is a 36-year-old university lecturer from Sydney who made waves with her performance at Place de la Concorde during the Paris Games’ breakdancing competition. Many people online, and even Grammy-winning singer Adele, poked fun at Gunn’s unique moves.
‘I think it’s the best thing that’s happened in the Olympics the entire time,’ the British singer said about Gunn’s dancing while on stage during a concert in Munich, Germany. ‘Did anyone see the breakdancing lady? Now I didn’t even know that breakdancing was an Olympic sport these days. I think that’s (expletive) fantastic.’
Adele continued to say that she and her friends had been ‘laughing’ for ‘nearly 24 hours’ about Gunn’s dancing, but she said it made her ‘very very happy.’
Despite the jokes, Gunn continues to embrace the spotlight and some lucky fans even got a chance to see her breakdance in person. TikTok user @jeanmitchell posted a video of Gunn dancing in the street as fans surrounded her and yelled after each move. The caption was: ‘(Expletive) QUEEEEN’
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How did Raygun do at the Paris Olympics?
Although Gunn is gaining fans, the Olympic judges were anything but as they didn’t give the ‘B-girl’ a single point throughout the competition. She was defeated by USA’s Logistx, France’s Syssy and Lithuania’s Nicka, losing 18-0 on each occasion.
Gunn, who wrote her PhD thesis on the intersection of gender and Sydney’s breaking culture, also repped Australia at the world championships in 2021 and 2022 before earning a spot at the Olympics through the Oceania championships in 2023, CNN reported.
‘In 2023, many of my students didn’t believe me when I told them I was training to qualify for the Olympics and were shocked when they checked Google and saw that I qualified,” Gunn told CNBC earlier this month.
While most of the 32 B-boys and B-girls at the Paris Games had been breakdance battling since they were young, Gunn did not participate in her first battle until 2012.
“All my moves are original,” Raygun told CNN after competing in Paris. “Creativity is really important to me. I go out there and I show my artistry. Sometimes, it speaks to the judges, and sometimes, it doesn’t. I do my thing and it represents art. That is what it is about.”